SEVENTY-FIVE 
YEARS  OF 


izx  IGtbrtB 


SEYMOUR  DURST 


When  you  leave,  please  leave  this  book 

Because  tt  has  been  said 
" Ever'lhmg  comes  t'  him  who  waits 

Except  a  loaned  book." 


AVBRY  ARCtllTECTUF-iAL  AND  FINE  ARTS  LIBRARY 
Oil  T  OF  Shymour  B.  Di  rst  Old  York  Lii^rary 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcliive 
in  2013 


http://archive.org/details/seventyfiveyearsOOvose 


SEVENTY- FIVE  YEARS 

OF 

THE  MERCANTILE  AGENCY 
R.  G.  DUN  &  CO. 

1841-1916 


BY 

EDWARD  NEVILLE  VOSE 

Editor^  Dun's  International  Revieto 


PRIVATELY  PRINTED 

AT  THE  PRINTING  HOUSE  OF  R.  G.  DUN  &  CO. 

Butler  axd  Nevins  Streets,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
MCMXVI 


.y6 


Copyright^  1916 
R.  G.  DUN  &  COMPANY 


INTRODUCTORY 


The  first  mercantile  agency  in  the  world  was  estab- 
lished in  the  City  of  New  York  in  1841.  The  same  insti- 
tution is  the  first  in  its  field  to-day — a  record  of  continuous 
success  and  uninterrupted  expansion  throughout  three- 
quarters  of  a  century.  Its  growth  is  a  notable  example 
of  American  perseverance  and  enterprise.  At  the  start, 
the  concern  occupied  a  single  small  room,  with  less  than 
half  a  dozen  clerks,  who  laboriously  copied  in  longhand 
a  set  of  reports  which  filled  only  a  few  ledgers.  To-day 
it  is  an  organization  having  branches  in  practically  all  of 
the  principal  cities  of  the  United  States,  and  in  ninety-six 
of  the  strategic  trade  centers  abroad,  with  upward  of  ten 
thousand  employees  in  these  offices,  and  over  a  hundred  thou- 
sand representatives  in  the  less  important  commercial  centers, 
and  with  many  millions  of  typewritten  reports. 

While  credit  is  almost  as  old  an  institution  as  capital 
— banks  for  the  safeguarding  of  which  have  existed  for 
centuries — it  is  a  most  remarkable  fact  that  it  was  not  in 
the  countries  of  the  Old  World,  with  their  highly  devel- 
oped civilization,  but  in  the  then  raw  and  sparsely  settled 
United  States  of  America,  that  the  first  organization  for 
the  protection  of  credit  was  perfected.  This  truly  great 
conception — rivaling  many  epoch-making  inventions  in  its 
value  to  mankind — was  given  to  the  world  by  a  New  York 
merchant,  and  the  story  of  its  progressive  improvement, 
year  by  year,  for  nearly  three  generations,  is  one  that  has 
never  before  been  told. 

In  compiling  this  brief  sketch  it  was  necessary  to  delve 

i 


Sevexty-five        Years  of 


into  numerous  dust}'  arcliives  of  the  past,  to  search  through 
files  of  earh'  newspapers  and  magazines,  and  to  correspond 
with  nearly  two  hundred  and  fifty  branch-office  managers, 
present  or  retired.  Few  of  the  builders  of  The  Mercantile 
Agenc}'  realized  that  they  were  creating  an  institution  of 
world-wide  interest  and  importance,  and  they  therefore 
seldom  kept  any  permanent  record  of  the  events  with  which 
the}'  were  associated.  The  men  who  could  say  of  the  early 
history  of  the  Agency,  as  did  Cfesar  of  the  Gallic  War, 
"All  of  which  I  saw  and  part  of  which  I  was,"  have  for 
the  most  part  passed  away.  Their  chief  memorial  is  the 
great  organization  to  the  upbuilding  of  which  they  devoted 
their  lives,  and  which  is  now  everywhere  known  as  R.  G. 
Dun  &  Co.  In  this  outline  history  only  the  leaders  in  the 
great  host  of  Agency  workers  are  mentioned  individually, 
but  all — like  the  soldiers  in  a  well-disciplined  army — must 
share  the  honor  of  the  achievements  described. 

From  the  dawn  of  civilization  credit  has  been  recognized 
as  one  of  the  most  vital  factors  of  business,  without  which  it 
would  be  confined  to  narrow  limits.  One  of  the  oldest  refer- 
ences to  credit  is  in  the  Mosaic  laws,  where  in  speaking  of 
the  release  of  debts  every  seventh  year  the  great  lawgiver 
says :  "Every  creditor  that  lendeth  ought  unto  his  neighbor 
shall  release  it."  (Deuteronomy  15:2.)  Thus  the  relation 
of  debtor  and  creditor  was  a  well-recognized  one  at  that 
period,  1451  B.  C.  In  one  of  his  orations  Demosthenes,  the 
famous  Athenian  statesman,  who  died  822  B.C.,  said:  "If 
you  were  ignorant  of  this — that  credit  is  the  greatest  capital 
of  all  toward  the  acquisition  of  wealth — you  would  be  utterly 
ignorant."  The  American  Demosthenes,  Daniel  Webster, 
who  was  in  the  plenitude  of  his  great  powers  when  The  ]\Ier- 
cantile  Agency  was  established,  once  delivered  the  following 
memorable  panegyric  of  credit: 

ii 


The      INI  ercax  tile  Agency 


Commercial  credit  is  the  creation  of  modern  times, 
and  belongs,  in  its  highest  perfection,  only  to  the  most 
enlightened  and  best-governed  nations.  .  .  .  Credit  is  tlie 
vital  air  of  the  sy,stem  of  modern  commerce.  It  has  done 
more,  a  thousand  times  more,  to  enrich  nations,  than  all 
the  mines  of  all  the  world.  It  has  excited  labor,  stimulated 
manufactures,  pushed  commerce  over  every  sea,  and  brought 
every  nation,  every  kingdom,  and  every  small  tribe  among 
the  races  of  men  to  be  known  to  all  the  rest.  It  has  raised 
armies,  equipped  navies,  and,  triumphing  over  the  gross 
power  of  mere  numbers,  it  has  established  national  3u- 
periority  on  the  foundation  of  intelligence,  wealth,  and 
well-directed  industry. 

One  of  t]ie  clearest  expositions  of  tlie  nature  and 
properties  of  credit  ever  written  will  be  found  in  Chapter  IX 
of  Book  III  in  John  Stuart  :Mill's  "Principles  of  Political 
Econom3\"  In  this  chapter,  which  treats  of  Credit  as  a 
Substitute  for  Money,  the  foremost  master  in  the  teaching 
of  this  important  science  says : 

Credit  has  a  great,  but  not,  as  many  seem  to  suppose, 
a  magical  power ;  it  cannot  make  something  out  of  nothing. 
.  .  .  Credit  being  only  permission  to  use  the  capital  of  an- 
other person,  the  means  of  production  cannot  be  increased 
by  it,  but  only  transferred.  If  the  borrower's  means  of 
production  and  of  employing  labour  are  increased  by  the 
credit  given  him,  the  lender's  are  as  much  diminished.  The 
same  sum  cannot  be  used  as  capital  both  by  the  owner  and 
also  by  the  person  to  whom  it  is  lent;  it  cannot  supply  its 
entire  value  in  wages,  tools  and  material  to  two  sets  of 
labourers  at  once.  .  .  .  All  capital  (not  his  own)  of  wliich 
any  person  has  really  the  use,  is,  and  must  be,  so  much 
subtracted  from  tlie  capital  of  some  one  else. 

But  though  credit  is  never  anything  more  than  a 
transfer  of  capital  from  hand  to  hand,  it  is  generally,  and 
naturally,  a  transfer  to  hands  more  competent  to  employ 
the  capital  efficiently  in  production.  If  there  were  no  such 
thing  as  credit,  or  if,  from  general  insecurity  and  want  of 

iii 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

confidence,  it  were  scantily  practised,  many  persons  who 
possess  more  or  less  of  capital,  but  who  from  their  occupa- 
tions, or  for  want  of  the  necessary'  skill  and  knowledge, 
cannot  personally  superintend  its  employment,  would  derive 
no  benefit  from  it;  their  funds  M'ould  either  lie  idle,  or 
would  be,  perhaps,  wasted  and  annihilated  in  unskilful 
attempt3  to  make  them  yield  a  profit.  All  this  capital 
is  now  lent  at  interest,  and  made  available  for  production. 
Capital  thus  circumstanced  forms  a  large  portion  of  the 
productive  resources  of  any  commercial  country ;  and  is 
naturalh^  attracted  to  those  producers  or  traders  who,  being 
in  the  greatest  business,  have  the  means  of  employing  it  to 
most  advantage;  because  such  are  both  the  most  desirous 
to  obtain  it,  and  able  to  give  the  best  security.  Although, 
therefore,  the  productive  funds  of  the  country  are  not  in- 
creased by  credit,  they  are  called  into  a  more  complete  state 
of  productive  activity.  .  .  . 

While  credit  is  thus  indispensable  for  rendering  the 
whole  capital  of  the  country  productive,  it  is  also  a  means 
by  wliich  the  industrial  talent  of  the  country  is  turned 
to  better  account  for  purposes  of  production.  Many  a  person 
who  has  either  no  capital  of  his  own,  or  very  little,  but 
who  has  qualifications  for  business  which  are  known  and 
appreciated  by  some  possessors  of  capital,  is  enabled  to 
obtain  either  advances  in  money,  or  more  frequently  goods 
on  credit,  by  which  his  industrial  capacities  are  made  in- 
strumental to  the  increase  of  the  public  wealth;  and  this 
benefit  will  be  reaped  far  more  largely,  whenever,  through 
better  laws  and  better  education,  the  community  shall  have 
made  such  progress  in  integrity  that  personal  character  can 
be  accepted  as  a  sufficient  guarantee,  not  only  against  dis- 
honestly appropriating,  but  against  dishonestly  risking,  what 
belongs  to  another. 

While  maii}^  writers  and  speakers  have  attempted  defini- 
tions since,  no  one  has  ever  surpassed  this  classic  passage 
from  Mill  with  respect  to  the  economic  aspects  of  credit. 
For  our  purpose,  therefore,  it  only  remains  to  define  credit 
in  its  legal  aspect,  and  explain  the  office  of  a  mercantile 

iv 


The      ]\Ieiicaxtile  Agexcy 

agency  in  relation  thereto.  This  has  been  very  clearly  and 
tersely  done  b}^  Francis  L.  Minton,  now  and  for  two  score 
years  an  adviser  and  director  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in 
its  work,  as  follows : 

Credit,  in  a  legal  sense,  may  be  defined  as  "a  right  of 
action."  If  a  merchant  enjoys  good  credit,  as  it  ls  termed, 
he  may  go  into  the  market  and  buy  goods,  not  with  money, 
but  by  giving  his  promise  to  pay  money  at  a  future  time 
for  them — that  is,  he  creates  a  right  of  action  against 
himself.  The  goods  become  his  property  exactly  as  if  he 
had  paid  for  them  in  money.  The  right  of  action  is  the  price 
he  pays  for  them,  and  the  right  of  action  is  termed  a  credit, 
because  it  is  not  a  right  to  any  specific  sum  of  money,  but 
only  a  general  right  against  the  person  of  the  merchant 
to  demand  a  sum  of  money  at  a  future  time.  .  .  .  When  a 
merchant  purchases  goods  with  his  credit  instead  of  with 
money,  his  credit  is  valued  in  money  because  the  seller  of 
the  goods  accepts  his  credit  as  equal  in  value  to  money. 

The  office  of  a  mercantile  agency  is  to  give  a  merchant 
information  upon  which  he  may  determine  the  value  of  the 
right  of  action  which  it  is  proposed  he  shall  accept  as  the 
consideration  for  the  transfer  of  his  title  to  his  goods.  .  .  . 
By  far  the  larger  part  of  mercantile  transactions  are  based 
upon  credit.  In  other  words,  by  far  the  larger  part  of 
transactions  between  merchants  and  manufacturers,  which 
have  to  do  with  the  passing  of  the  title  of  goods,  are,  in 
effect,  a  sale  of  the  goods  by  the  seller  to  the  buyer  in 
exchange  for  the  buyer's  promise  to  pay,  that  is,  in  ex- 
change for  a  right  of  action  against  the  buyer.  Credit,  then, 
made  up  of  simple  debts,  deposits,  bills,  notes,  etc.,  is  the 
chief  medium  of  exchange  in  a  commercial  sense.  ...  A 
well-managed  credit  amounts  to  tenfold  the  funds  of  a  mer- 
chant, and  he  gains  as  much  by  his  credit  as  if  he  had 
ten  times  as  much  money.  .  .  .  Credit  is,  therefore,  the 
greatest  wealth  to  every  one  who  carries  on  commerce. 

According  to  some  authorities  the  proportion  of  credit 
transactions,  out  of  the  enormous  total  to  which  modern 


V 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


business  gives  rise,  is  as  large  as  ninet^'-five  per  cent.  In 
fact,  it  would  be  practically  impossible  to  carry  on  the  busi- 
ness of  the  world  to-day  without  credit,  and  its  universal 
destruction  would  be  an  economic  disaster  of  appalling  mag- 
nitude. In  view  of  the  great  importance  of  the  subject, 
it  is  lioped  that  this  brief  history  of  the  first  institution  in 
the  world  for  the  systematic  appraisal  and  recording  of 
credits  will  be  of  interest,  not  onh'  to  the  friends  and  clients 
of  The  Mercantile  Agency,  but  to  all  students  of  economics 
and  of  modern  business,  and  particular!}-  to  the  great  army 
of  credit  men  upon  whose  judgment  and  sagacity  the  safety 
of  ever}'  mercantile  community  so  largely  depends. 


vi 


CHAPTER  I 


The  Inception  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 

1841-1846 

Ix  order  to  understand  clearly  how  The  ]Mer- 
cantile  Agency  came  into  existence  when  and  where 
it  did,  it  is  necessary  to  recall  some  of  the  principal 
characteristics  of  the  American  mercantile  commu- 
nity of  seventy-five  years  ago.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  were  slowly  heginning  to  realize  that 
they  were  on  the  frontier  of  the  greatest  and  richest 
wilderness  ever  thrown  open  for  development.  It 
was  a  period  of  feverish  mercantile  activity  during 
which  traders  made  fortunes  in  a  few  years,  but  with 
alternate  spells  of  severe  and  sudden  depression  when 
the  wealth  that  had  been  so  quickly  acquired  was 
often  lost  with  even  greater  rapidity. 

While  pioneers  were  still  blazing  trails  across  the 
mountains  and  S23reading  out  along  the  river  systems 
of  the  great  central  plain,  the  iron  horse  had  come  to 
solve  the  problem  of  bringing  the  ^^roducts  of  the  in- 
terior to  the  seaboard.  Beginning  in  1826,  a  few  short 
lines  had  been  built  at  various  points  along  the  coast 
until  by  1840  the  total  constructed  and  in  operation 
was  2,818  miles.  By  1852  this  had  increased  to  10,814, 
and  by  1860  to  over  35,000  miles.  In  1841,  however, 
transcontinental  lines  were  undreamed  of,  and  the 


1 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 

great  trunk  routes  to  the  central  plain  were  just  being 
started.  On  September  23rd,  Philip  Hone  recorded 
in  his  invaluable  diary  the  opening  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
road from  Piermont  to  Goshen — not  a  very  long  link 
in  the  transcontinental  chain,  truly,  but  one  that  had 
taken  six  years  to  finance  and  build.  The  inaugural 
journey  was  made  on  platform  cars,  "exposed  to  a 
constant  shower  of  sparks  and  cinders,  like  those 
which  accompany  a  visit  to  Vesuvius  or  TEtna,  only 
not  half  so  romantic,"  the  train  being  "toted  by  two 
whizzing,  snorting,  fire-and-smoke  vomiting  locomo- 
tives." An  all-rail  journey  from  New  York  to  either 
Boston  or  Buffalo  was  still  a  long  way  off  in  1841, 
although  short  links  had  been  completed.  As  late  as 
1847  the  Pennsylvania  Railroad  extended  only  from 
Philadelphia  to  Harrisburg,  Mr.  Hone  stating  that 
it  took  him  five  days  to  go  from  the  State  capital 
to  Pittsburgh — most  of  the  way  by  canal  boat.  The 
stagecoaches  of  colonial  days  were  still  in  use  between 
many  points,  while  in  the  interior  river  steamers — 
which  blew  up  with  alarming  frequency — were  the 
chief  means  of  locomotion.  The  trans- Atlantic  steam- 
ship record  was  reduced  from  fifteen  days  to  eleven 
in  1840  by  the  Acadia,  which  remained  the  queen  of 
the  early  ocean  greyhounds  until  1848. 

In  1841  the  epoch-making  invention  of  the  mag- 
netic telegraph  was  still  in  its  infancy.  It  was  first 
announced  to  the  public  in  April,  1837,  its  inventor 
modestly  stating  that  he  "presumed  that  five  words 
could  be  transmitted  in  a  minute."   It  was  seven  years, 


2 


The      ]M  e  r  c  a  X  t  I  l  e  Agency 


however,  before  the  first  telegraph  hne  in  the  United 
States  was  completed — that  between  Washington 
and  Baltimore.  It  was  not  until  1866  that  the  first 
Atlantic  cable  was  laid,  while  the  telephone  was  given 
to  the  world  ten  years  later.  Postal  facilities  were 
equally  primitive.  In  1840  the  first  national  postage 
stamps  were  issued  in  Great  Britain — an  improve- 
ment that  was  not 
adopted  over  here  un- 
til 1847;  while  it  was 
1856  before  prepay- 
ment of  postage  was 
made  compulsory  by 
law  in  this  country. 

During  the  first 
three  or  four  decades 
of  the  nation's  history 
there  was  a  keen 
rivalry  between  Xew 
York,  Boston  and 
Philadelphia  as  to 
which  should  become 
the  commercial  me- 
tropolis of  the  Re- 
public. The  contest 
was  virtually  settled 
by  the  completion  of 
the  Erie  Canal  in  1825,  and  during  the  next  decade 
New  York  grew  very  rapidly.  The  canal  made  the 
city  the  chief  port  of  shipment  for  the  products  of 
the  interior  and  the  leading  distributing  center  for 
imported  merchandise.  Great  trading  houses  sprang 
3 


The  first  Merchants'  Exchange, 
situated  on  Wall  Street 
(From  an  engraving  published  in  1830) 


S  i:  V  i:  X  T  Y  -  r  i  v  e         Years  of 


up,  having  connections  with  retail  merchants  in  all 
parts  of  the  country.  In  183.5  a  fire  destroyed  almost 
the  entire  mercantile  district,  sweeping  over  an  area 
of  fifty  acres,  but  the  merchants  immediately  rebuilt 


Jiuiiifi  of  the  MercJwnts'  Ej-rlniniK  uftrr  the  great  fire  of  December 
16th  and  nth,  1835 

(From  a  contemporary  print) 


their  ruined  premises  on  a  larger  and  more  lavish  scale 
than  before,  relying  largely  on  European  credits  and 
liberal  bank  loans  to  do  so. 

At  that  period  it  was  customary  for  w^estern  and 
southern  traders  to  visit  the  eastern  wholesale  mer- 
chants and  manufacturers  twice  a  year  to  make  their 
purchases  in  person.  The  terms  of  sale  were  very 
simple.  The  buyer  agreed  to  pay  for  the  goods  pur- 
chased when  he  came  again.   In  other  words,  the  pre- 


4 


The      M  e  r  c  a  X  t  I  l  e  Agency 

vailing  system  was  six  months'  credit  on  all  trans- 
actions. If  a  firm  had  just  started  in  business  its 
buying  partner  brought  with  him — on  his  first  visit  to 
the  eastern  jobbers — letters  of  recommendation  from 
other  merchants  in  his  vicinity,  these  letters  being 
addressed  to  the  houses  from  whicli  the  merchants 
were  themselves  purchasing  and  to  whom  they  were 
well  known.    This  was  the  system  that  had  existed 


The  tieio  Merchants'  Exchange,  '•the  finest  mercantile  edifice 
in  America,"  as  it  appeared  in  IS^l 

(From  a  contemporary  engraving) 

from  colonial  times,  but  as  the  country  expanded  it 
showed  an  increasing  tendency  to  break  down.  Means 
of  travel  and  communication  were  slow  and  uncer- 
tain, and  if  the  letter  of  introduction  failed  to  convey 
sufficient  information  upon  which  to  extend  credit 
with  safety  weeks  might  elapse  before  it  could  be  sup- 
plemented. JNIeanwhile,  of  course,  the  buyer  would 
go  elsew^here  for  his  goods,  and  a  valuable  account 
might  be  lost.  jNIoreover,  after  once  having  estab- 
lished trade  relations  on  a  credit  basis,  the  jobber  had 


5 


Seventy-five        Years  of 

little  or  no  means  of  judging  whether  the  affairs  of 
his  customer  were  prospering  or  the  reverse.  Periods 
of  depression  occurred  with  great  frequency  in  which 
the  eastern  sellers  lost  heavily,  owing  to  the  inability 
of  western  and  southern  buyers  to  meet  their  obliga- 
tions. Some  of  these  retail  failures  were  caused  by 
crop  shortages,  others  by  money  stringency,  but  the 
greater  proportion  were  due  to  the  fact  that  credit 
had  been  injudiciously  extended  to  traders  who  were 
not  entitled  to  it.  A  most  striking  instance  of  the  ex- 
tremely high  rate  of  mercantile  mortality  resulting 
from  this  unsound  method  of  granting  credits  is  given 
by  Lewis  Tappan,  the  founder  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency,  in  an  Appendix  to  his  Life  of  Arthur  Tap- 
pan: 

In  1832  a  clergyman  came  to  New  York  to  solicit 
funds  for  a  college  in  Missouri.  A  loan  of  $10^000  was 
finally  obtained  on  the  following  terms:  (1)  That  the 
trustees  of  the  college  should  mortgage  to  the  lender,  as 
security  for  their  bond,  the  land  to  be  purchased  from 
the  United  States;  (2)  that  forty  merchants  in  New 
York,  who  had  expressed  a  willingness  to  loan  their 
names  to  the  amount  of  $500  each,  should  unite  in  a 
guaranty;  (3)  that  five  of  the  number  give  a  bond  in- 
dorsing the  responsibility  of  the  forty;  (4)  that  the 
friend  who  negotiated  the  loan  on  behalf  of  the  institu- 
tion should  give  his  obligation  to  hold  the  lender  harm- 
less at  all  events,  or,  in  other  words,  to  repay  the  sum 
advanced  if  the  others  did  not.  At  the  end  of  ten  years, 
when  the  loan  became  due,  the  trustees  were  unable  to 
repay  it.  No.  4  was  then  applied  to,  but  did  not  have 
the  means  to  meet  the  obligation.  Of  the  five  merchants 
in  No.  3  four  had  become  insolvent.  The  only  solvent 
one  among  them  tlien  endeavored  to  collect  their  respec- 
tive quotas  from  the  forty  merchants  in  No.  2,  but  found 
that  a  large  portion  of  these  had  also  failed,  so  that 


6 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

he  was  compelled  to  settle  with  the  lender  himself. 
When  the  loan  was  made^  those  in  the  No.  2  list  were 
all  in  prosperous  circumstances,  and  each  of  the  No.  3 
list  was  rich.  Yet,  such  were  the  uncertainties  of  trade 
under  the  credit  system  which  then  prevailed,  that  in 
less  than  ten  years  nearly  all  of  these  merchants  had 
become  bankrupts. 

The  prevailing  system  of  long-term  credits,  based 
upon  very  insufficient  information  as  to  the  buyer's 
responsibihty  in  most  instances,  was  one  of  the  chief 
causes  of  the  great  panic  of  1837,  and  contributed 


The  Park  and  City  Hall,  New  York,  as  they  appeared  in  IS41, 
tchen  The  Mercantile  Agency  was  established 

(From  an  engraving  published  in  1838) 


especially  to  the  extraordinarily  high  number  of  fail- 
ures that  occurred  among  strictly  mercantile  houses 
during  that  crisis  and  the  periods  of  severe  depression 
that  succeeded  it  in  1839  and  1840.  Other  causes  of 
the  disaster  of  1837  were  speculation  in  Government 
lands,  inflation  of  bank  loans,  unsound  currency,  over- 


7 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


expansion  of  trade,  and  serious  eroj)  failures — a  group 
of  adverse  factors  sufficiently  formidable  to  wreck 
almost  any  country.  Xew  highways,  railroads  and 
canals  had  opened  up  immense  areas  of  previously 
inaccessible  lands  that  were  sold  by  the  Government 
on  easy  terms — $1.25  ^^er  acre,  payable  in  any  kind 
of  currency.  As  the  market  value  of  these  lands 
quickly  rose  above  the  Government's  prices,  an  era 
of  land  speculation  set  in  that  greatly  overdiscounted 
the  immediate  future.  Local  banks  loaned  freely  on 
newly  i^urchased  and  unimproved  Government  lands, 
and  new  banks  were  established  to  meet  this  tempo- 
rary demand.  In  1829  the  number  of  banks  in  the 
country  was  329,  and  the  total  loans  aggregated  $137,- 
000,000.  In  1837  the  number  of  banks  was  788  and 
the  aggregate  of  loans  $525,100,000.  Much  of  this 
inflation  in  loans  was  based  on  unimproved  lands  in 
the  hands  of  speculators. 

The  money  in  circulation  at  this  period  consisted 
ahiiost  entirely  of  paper,  with  very  little  gold  or  sil- 
ver behind  it.  The  bank  notes  of  many  of  the  States 
were  not  current  in  other  States.  Counterfeits  w^ere 
numerous,  and  "Counterfeit  Bank  Xote  Detectors" 
were  in  almost  universal  use  among  merchants  and 
others  receiving  paper  money.  "No  one  was  safe 
without  them — nor  especially  safe  with  them,"  accord- 
ing to  a  merchant  of  that  j^eriod.  A  currency  so 
essentially  unsound  became  a  menace  whenever  busi- 
ness conditions  were  disturbed. 


8 


The      JNIercantile  Agency 

As  stated,  causes  of  disturbance  were  not  lack- 
ing in  1837.  The  mania  for  speculation  was  not  con- 
fined to  western  lands.    Prices  of  cotton  plantations, 


Wall  Street  as  it  appeared  in  18^9,  a  few  years  after  The  Mercantile 
Agency  was  established.    The  'building  at  the 
right  is  still  standing 


especially  in  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  rose  sharply, 
as  did  prices  of  real  estate  in  southern  cities.  At 
Mobile,  for  example,  the  assessed  value  of  real  estate 

9 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

rose  from  $1,2.50,000  in  1834  to  $27,000,000  in  1837. 
Prices  of  cotton  were  soaring.  The  famous  Specie 
Circular  issued  by  the  United  States  Treasury  De- 
partment in  1830  pricked  the  western  land  bubble 
by  requiring'  that  agents  for  the  sale  of  public  lands 
should  accej^t  only  specie  and  refuse  bank  notes  of 
all  kinds.  At  the  same  time  a  number  of  failures  in 
Great  Britain  compelled  houses  there  to  call  their 
American  loans,  which  caused  a  heavy  fall  in  cotton 
and  crippled  the  South.  The  crop  failures  of  1835 
and  1837  affected  the  merchants  adversely  in  the 
farming  sections  of  the  North  and  West.  At  this 
moment,  when  the  business  community  was  confronted 
by  the  most  serious  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  coun- 
try, the  Treasury  Department  called  upon  the  banks 
holding  national  funds  for  $9,000,000  as  a  first  pay- 
ment of  the  surplus  to  be  distributed  among  the  States. 
''Millions  of  dollars  w^ent  on  their  travels  North  and 
South,  East  and  West,  being  mere  freight  for  the 
time  being,  while  the  business  from  which  the  money 
was  withdrawn  gasped  for  breath  in  its  struggle  with 
a  fearfully  stringent  money  market."*  This  was  in 
January,  1837.  On  April  1st  a  second  installment 
was  called  for,  but  the  sorely  pressed  banks  were  not 
equal  to  the  strain. 

On  May  10th  the  banks  of  New  York  City  sus- 
pended specie  payments,  followed  the  next  day  by 
the  banks  in  many  other  cities.  As  was  to  be  expected, 
security  prices  fell  during  the  first  months  of  the  year 

*  Carl  Schurz,  Life  of  Henry  Clay. 


10 


The      M  ercantile  Agency 

to  less  than  half,  in  many  instances,  of  the  prices  of 
the  year  before.  Real  estate  prices  at  New  York 
declined  even  more  sharply.  Lots  at  Bloomingdale 
(near  100th  Street),  which  cost  $480  each  the  pre- 
vious September,  were  sold  at  $50.  Real  estate 
throughout  the  city  depreciated  more  than  $40,000,000 
in  six  months.  In  two  months  there  were  over  250 
failures,  while  the  value  of  merchandise  stocks  on 


Wall  Street  from  the  corner  of  Broad  Street.   From  a  print  published 
about  the  time  that  this  section  began  to  he  knoxon 
OS  the  financial  district 


hand  in  warehouses  and  stores  declined  30  per  cent. 
The  situation  throughout  the  country  was  the  same. 
All  banks  suspended  specie  payments,  and  the  total 
number  of  failures  among  mercantile  houses  has 
never  been  reported.  In  proportion  to  the  number 
of  firms  in  business  it  was  probably  the  largest  in 
the  history  of  the  country. 


11 


S  E  A'  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  K  S  O  F 

Amonty  the  more  notable  failures  was  that  of 
Arthur  Tappau  k  Co.,  wholesale  and  retail  silk  deal- 
ers, whose  establishment  on  Pearl  Street  at  Hanover 
Square  (then  the  heart  of  the  fashionable  shopping 
district),  was  one  of  the  largest  in  the  country,  with 
sales  amounting  to  over  a  million  dollars  per  annum. 
With  Arthur  Tappan  was  associated  his  brother 
Lewis,  who  had  charge  of  the  credits  of  the  firm.  At 
the  outset  the  partners  proposed  to  sell  only  for  cash, 
but  "the  general  practice  of  merchants  at  that  day, 
the  earnest  solicitations  of  customers,  the  temptations 
to  sell  at  greater  profits,  and  the  apparent  success  of 
the  credit  system,  influenced  the  firm  to  depart,  by 
degrees,  from  the  rule  that  had  been  established  until 
its  principal  sales  were  made  on  credit."* 

Few  houses,  even  in  those  days,  had  stricter  rules 
for  their  employees  than  those  laid  down  by  Arthur 
Tappan  &  Co.  They  were  required :  ( 1 )  To  be  strictly 
temperate;  (2)  to  avoid  fast  habits  and  bad  compan- 
ions; (3)  to  keep  away  from  theaters;  (4)  to  attend 
Divine  service  twice  on  the  Sabbath  Day;  (5)  to  re- 
port at  the  store  every  Monday  morning  what  church 
they  had  attended,  the  name  of  the  clergyman  and  the 
text;  (6)  to  attend  prayer-meetings  twice  a  week, 
and  (7)  never  to  be  out  after  10  o'clock  P.  M.f 

In  determining  credits  the  brothers  were  equally 
exacting.  Each  applicant  was  questioned  individu- 
ally, usually  by  Lewis,  and  no  detail  reported  was 
ever  forgotten — both  brothers  being  noted  for  their 

*  Life  of  Arthur  Tappan. 

t  The  Old  Merchants  of  New  York  City. 

12 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

very  retentive  memories.  In  this  manner  the  firm 
gradually  accumulated  a  large  amount  of  information 
regarding  buyers  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  As  an 
instance  of  the  high  esteem  with  which  their  fellow 
merchants  regarded  the  Tappans  as  credit  authori- 
ties, A.  T.  Stewart,  in  the  early  stages  of  his  career — 
when  doubts  were  expressed  as  to  whether  he  was 
going  beyond  his  resources — named  Lewis  Tappan 
"as  a  fit  and  proper  person,  both  from  integrity  and 
business  shrewdness,  to  look  into  his  accounts  and 
make  an  impartial  report  of  his  pecuniary  condition, 
so  as  to  set  all  doubts  at  rest."  During  the  early 
thirties,  as  the  extent  and  reliability  of  the  informa- 
tion they  had  accumulated  for  their  own  use  became 
generally  known,  Arthur  Tappan  &  Co.  were  fre- 
quently consulted  by  fellow  merchants  on  the  sub- 
ject of  credits,  and  gave  their  advice  freely  whenever 
requested  to  do  so. 

The  immediate  cause  of  the  Tappan  failure  was 
the  fact  that  the  firm  was  carrying  a  very  heavy  stock 
of  goods  at  a  time  of  great  financial  embarrassment. 
"The  expansion  of  trade  much  beyond  the  actual 
wants  of  the  country,  the  extensive  credits  given  by 
merchants,  the  failure  of  southern  traders  to  fulfill 
their  engagements,  added  to  the  severe  losses  by  fire, 
and  other  causes,  were  rapidly  bringing  on  general 
bankruptcy,"  wrote  Lewis  Tappan  in  his  account  of 
the  failure.  The  firm  suspended  in  May,  1837,  its 
liabilities  amounting  to  $1,100,000.  The  creditors 
were  given  notes  for  six,  twelve  and  eighteen  months 


13 


S  E  A'  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  E 


in  lieu  of  their  claims.  These  were  paid  promptly  as 
they  came  due,  hut  husiness  conditions  continuin(>'  to 
be  unsatisfactory,  Lewis  soon  afterw^ard  retired  from 
the  firm,  followed  by  Arthur  in  1840,  the  business 
passing  to  other  hands. 

The  panic  of  1837  has  been  described  in  some 
detail  because  it  not  only  led  directly  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  Tlie  ^Mercantile  Agency,  but  was  largely 
responsible  for  its  early  success.  The  failure  of 
A.  Tappan  &  Co.  left  Lewis,  its  credit  manager,  free 
to  engage  in  some  new^  occupation.  His  wide  ex- 
perience in  appraising  the  credit  resj^onsibility  of 
traders,  and  the  high  regard  in  which  his  oj^inions  on 
credits  were  held  by  other  wholesale  merchants,  sug- 
gested the  idea  of  organizing  a  credit  reporting  bu- 
reau devoted  to  collecting  and  disseminating  such 
information  for  the  benefit  of  the  mercantile  com- 
munity as  a  whole.  The  great  lesson  of  the  panic, 
as  he  saw  it — after  studying  closely  its  causes  and 
effects — was  that  the  system  of  mercantile  credits 
that  had  prevailed  until  then  was  essentially  un- 
sound because  it  failed  to  take  sufficiently  into  ac- 
count the  standing  of  the  applicant  for  credit,  based 
upon  information  obtained  from  intelligent  and  re- 
liable sources.  Likewise,  the  panic,  with  its  over- 
throw of  merchants  and  traders  of  every  grade  of 
credit  reputation  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  had 
convinced  business  men  generally  that  there  was 
something  wrong  with  a  system  that  could  result  in 
so  universal  a  collapse.    They  were,  therefore,  quick 

14 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


to  perceive  the  need  of  an  institution  for  safeguard- 
ing credits  by  enabling  the  seller  to  inform  himself 
more  exactly  regarding  the  character  and  standing  of 
each  applicant. 


-  > 


LEWIS  TAPPAN 
The  founder  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
(From  an  engraving  in  America's  Advancement,  published  in  1875) 

Encouraged  by  the  result  of  the  inquiries  he  had 
made  among  his  fellow  merchants  as  to  the  favor  with 
which  they  would  regard  his  novel  enterprise,  Lewis 
Tappan  determined  to  establish  what  he  called  "The 


15 


S  E  A'  K  X  T  Y  -  1    I  V  E  Y  E  A  11  S  OF 

jNIercantile  Agency"  in  tlie  year  184(1.  On  June  1st 
of  that  year  he  sent  an  announcement  of  his  project 
to  all  of  the  leading  merchants  of  Xew  York  City, 
and  especially  to  tliose  engaged  in  the  wholesale  trade 
with  merchants  in  other  parts  of  the  country — "in  the 
country  trade,"  as  2>eople  called  it  in  those  days.  In 
this  announcement  INIr.  Tappan  set  August  1st  as 
the  date  for  heginning  active  operations,  and  on  that 
day  the  new  institution — the  first  of  its  kind  in  the 
world — opened  its  doors  for  the  transaction  of  busi- 
ness under  the  name  of  The  JNIercantile  Agency,  which 
it  has  ever  since  retained.  The  first  place  of  business 
was  at  the  corner  of  Hanover  Street  and  Exchange 
Place,  close  to  the  store  of  A.  Tappan  &  Co.  (the  suc- 
cessors of  Arthur  and  Lewis  Tappan). 

The  months  of  June  and  July  were  evidently 
spent  in  securing  subscribers  to  the  new  Agency. 
The  original  subscription  book  used  by  Lewis  Tap- 
pan  is  still  in  existence.  It  is  a  little  pocket  memo- 
randum book,  six  inches  high  by  about  four  wide, 
covered  with  imitation  leather.  On  the  first  page 
Mr.  Taj^pan  wrote  the  terms  of  the  first  Agency  con- 
tract, which  were  as  follows: 

We  the  subscribers,  individuals  and  firms,  trad- 
ing and  selling  merchandise  in  the  City  of  New  York, 
being  acquainted  with  the  objects  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  as  set  forth  in  a  published  Circular  signed  by 
Lewis  Tappan,  approving  thereof  and  being  desirous 
to  avail  ourselves  of  its  advantages,  do  hereby  sev- 
erally agree  to  pay  to  the  said  Lewis  Tappan,  for  the 
information  which  he  may  be  able  to  furnish  us  from 
time  to  time  at  the  office  of  said  Agency  for  one  year 
from  the  first  day  of  August,  1 84 1 ,  and  until  we  shall 


16 


The      M  ercaxtile  Agency 

inform  said  Tappan  in  writing  of  our  wish  to  discon- 
tinue our  subscriptions — three  months  notice  there- 
of to  be  given — the  sums  of  money  which  shall  be 
payable  by  us  respectively  in  advance  according  to 
the  following  terms,  to  wit: 

Those  of  us  whose  sales  of  goods  for  one  year 
amount  to  One  Hundred  Thousand  dollars  or  less  will 
severally  and  respectively  pay  One  Hundred  dollars. 

Those  whose  sales  are  over  $100,000  and  less 
than  $200,000,  One  Hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

Those  whose  sales  are  over  $200,000  and  less 
than  $350,000,  Two  Hundred  dollars. 

Those  whose  sales  are  over  $350,000  and  less 
than  $500,000,  Two  Hundred  and  fifty  dollars. 

And  all  whose  sales  are  over  $500,000,  Three 
Hundred  dollars. 

And  the  subscribers  do  further  agree  and  prom- 
ise to  send  all  their  claims  that  are  or  shall  be  past 
due,  and  for  the  collection  or  settlement  of  which  they 
need  the  agency  of  another  person,  to  the  correspond- 
ents of  said  Tappan,  it  being  understood  that  said 
correspondents  shall  do  the  business  as  promptly 
and  faithfully  as  other  attorneys  and  agents,  and 
that  their  charges  and  commissions  shall  be  at  the 
customary  rates. 

July  31,  1841. 

After  so  prolonged  a  period  of  uncertainty  and 
disaster — for  the  panic  of  1837  was  followed  by  simi- 
lar, though  less  intense  periods  of  depression  in  1839 
and  1840 — merchants  were  ready  to  welcome  any 
plan  that  gave  promise  of  increased  safety,  and  the 
solicitors  of  the  new  organization  met  with  the  most 
flattering  success.  When  the  new  Agency  was  opened 
for  business,  Mr.  Tappan's  first  step  was  to  issue  a 
circular  to  lawj^ers  and  others  inviting  them  to  be- 
come his  correspondents.  In  this  way  he  hoped  to  be 
able  to  secure,  in  advance,  sufficient  data  regarding 
the  standing  of  traders  to  enable  merchants  to  whom 
they  might  subsequently  apply  for  credit  to  deter- 


17 


E  y  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


The  first  page  of  signatures  to  the  original  subscription 
hook  of  The  Mercantile  Agency,  dated 
July  Slet,  18J4 


18 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

mine  what  amount  of  credit,  if  any,  could  safely  be 
accorded  to  them.  His  own  experience,  as  dispenser 
of  credits  for  Arthur  Tappan  &  Co.,  had  taught  him 
that  after  the  buyer  arrived  and  presented  his  letters 
of  introduction  and  recommendation,  the  seller  was 
in  possession  of  only  a  part  of  the  information  he 
required  in  order  to  arrive  at  a  safe  decision.  Obvi- 


Exchange  Place^  looking  toward  Hanover  Street.    The  first  office 
of  The  Mercantile  Agency  was  at  the  corner  of  Exchange  Place 
and  Hanover  Street;  the  second  at  No.  9  Exchange  Place 


ously,  no  man  w^ould  refer  him  to  those  who  knew 
any  ill  of  him,  while  letters  of  introduction  might  be 
furnished  by  those  who  gave  them  merely  to  avoid 
the  unpleasant  necessity  of  explaining  to  the  credit 
applicant  in  person  why  they  refused'  to  do  so.  The 
responses  to  the  preliminary  circular  proved  satisfac- 


19 


S  E  A'  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  E  A  11  S  O  F 

tory,  and  The  jNIercantile  Agency  rapidly  accumu- 
lated a  valuable  mass  of  rej^orts.  These  were  written 
in  longhand — the  invention  of  the  typewriter  w^as 
still  many  years  in  the  future — in  huge  ledgers  bound 
in  sheepskin.  The  present  j^i'oprietors  of  The  IVIer- 
cantile  Agency,  R.  G.  Dux  &  Co.,  still  have  these 
primitive  report  books  of  the  forties  and  fifties 
among  their  archives.  It  would  indeed  be  difficult  to 
surpass  the  beauty  of  the  handwriting  in  many  of 
these  reports  in  this  modern  stenographic  and  type- 
writer age. 

Almost  from  the  very  outset,  it  became  increas- 
ingly apparent  that  the  service  of  the  new  institution 
would  be  greatly  improved,  and  the  number  of  sub- 
scribers correspondingly  increased,  if  branch  offices 
were  opened  in  the  principal  cities.  Accordingly,  in 
February,  1843,  Mr.  Tappan  proposed  to  Edward 
E.  Dunbar,  a  Boston  business  man,  that  he  open  a 
branch  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in  that  city,  which 
was  done  almost  immediately  under  the  firm  style  of 
Edward  E.  Dunbar  &  Co.,  Mr.  Tappan  and  Mr. 
Dunbar  each  taking  a  half  interest.  Speaking  a 
little  later  of  his  early  experiences  in  opening  the 
office,  Mr.  Dunbar  wrote: 

The  enterprise  was  entirely  new  to  Boston  mer- 
chants. Some  were  aware  that  a  concern  of  this  kind 
had  been  established  in  New  York,  but  they  were  almost 
wholly  unacquainted  with  its  practical  operation  and 
uses.  I  liad  neither  the  countenance  of  my  friends  nor 
the  confidence  of  merchants  in  my  novel,  or,  as  many 
regarded  it,  mysterious  undertaking.     It  was  a  long 


20 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

time  before  they  could  be  brought  to  see  that  my  object 
was  simply  to  collect  useful  information  respecting 
trade  and  traders  all  over  the  country^  by  means  of 
special  agents  and  an  organized  correspondence  of  law- 
yers, for  the  benefit  of  mercliants  in  the  city  who  sold 
goods  to  persons  in  the  country ;  and  to  afford  facilities 
for  the  collection  of  debts  by  keeping  a  registry  of 
prompt  and  faithful  attorneys  throughout  the  United 
States  who  would  obtain  information  and  correspond 
with  the  Agency. 

For  several  months  Mr.  Dunbar  labored  ardu- 
ously, but  made  little  apparent  progress.  He  then 
received  the  following  letter  from  Mr.  Tappan: 

I  am  beginning  to  think  seriously  whether  it  is  not 
for  my  interest  to  invite  you  to  give  up  the  branch  at 
Boston  and  unite  with  me  here.  Were  you  here  this 
fall,  or,  rather,  had  you  been  here  the  first  of  August, 
I  could  have  secured  a  large  number  of  new  subscribers 
and  have  greatly  strengthened  my  system. 

To  this  Mr.  Dunbar  replied,  on  September  5th, 
1843,  in  part,  as  follows: 

First,  respecting  the  Agency  here.  That  we  will 
ultimately  succeed  I  feel  confident,  ...  I  take  the 
broad  ground  that  the  institution  is  founded  on  good 
principles  and  that  its  operation  and  effect  are  of  im- 
mense benefit  to  the  community,  and  it  is  only  neces- 
sary for  the  community  to  see  this  in  order  to  support 
it.  It  requires  a  longer  time  to  operate  on  public  opin- 
ion in  Boston  than  in  New  York.  I  have  broken  ground 
here  and  certainly  accomplished  much  in  doing  away 
with  the  prejudice,  and  inducing  the  community  to  view 
the  system  impartially.  The  trade  of  the  West  is  turn- 
ing this  way  in  such  a  manner  that  by  and  by  the 
necessity  of  such  an  institution  cannot  but  be  apparent 
to  the  merchants.  Time,  labor  and  money  have  been 
expended — the  foundation  is  laid.  The  system  is  or- 
ganized and  oft'ered  to  merchants  for  their  examination 
and  use.  .  .  .    Had  I  now  a  direct  pecuniary  interest 


21 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


in  the  New  York  office  I  tliink  I  should  be  willing  to 
incur  some  expense  in  maintaining  the  Agency  here, 
for  the  following  reasons,  viz.: 

First.  The  great  influence  that  is  brought  to  bear 
in  favor  of  the  New  York  office,  as  my  arrangements 
■with  correspondents  have  been  effected,  to  a  great 
extent,  on  account  of  my  connection  with  that  office. 

Second.  ]\Iuch  valuable  information  is  obtained 
by  the  Agency  here  that  is  adapted  to  New  York, 
which  the  office  tJiere  must  in  any  case  obtain. 


The  Boston  Office,  established  l8Jf.3 
T}iis  office  has  for  many  years  been  located  at  Xo.  3  Winthrop 
i:<quarc,  irhere  it  occupies  the  entire  second  floor 


Third.  Should  the  Agency  here  be  given  up,  per- 
haps someone  else  -would  establish  one,  and  take  the 
benefit  of  my  labors. 

Fourth.  Should  this  Agency  be  suddenly  brought 
to  an  end,  it  would  have  a  bad  effect  on  the  New  York 
office. 

These  cogent  arguments  evidently  convinced 
Mr.  Tappan  of  the  importance  of  continuing  the 
Boston  office,  and  in  the  spring  of  1844  the  business 


22 


The      Mercantile  Agexcy 

of  the  new  branch  began  to  increase.  On  March  1st, 
Mr.  Dunbar  purchased  ]Mr.  Tappan's  interest  in  the 
Boston  office,  and  by  July  1st,  the  income  of  the 
branch  exceeded  exjjenses.  On  this  date  Mr.  Dun- 
bar sold  half  of  his  interest  in  the  Boston  office  and,  at 
the  request  of  Mr.  Tappan,  went  to  New  York, 
where  he  purchased  a  fourth  interest  in  the  head 

r 
I 


A  corner  of  the  Boston  Office 
In  every  office  the  cases  in  which  the  Agency's  records  are  kept 
form  a  prominent  feature 

office  for  $7,500,  the  establishment  then  being  valued 
at  $30,000.  The  firm  name  remained,  as  before, 
Lewis  Tappan  &  Co. 

In  October,  184J^,  Charles  Barlow  entered  the 
employ  of  The  ^Mercantile  Agency,  as  copyist  and 
correspondence  clerk.  ]Mr.  Barlow  was  born  in  Dud- 
ley, England,  in  1820;  and  came  to  the  United  States 

23 


!i!    n  'r 

iir  ' 


M  H  If 


S  E  V  K  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

at  the  age  of  twenty,  first  obtaining  employment  with 
A.  T.  Stewart.  He  remained  in  the  service  of  the 
Agency  until  his  death,  in  1880,  at  which  time  he  was 
one  of  the  partners  of  the  firm. 

The  next  branch  office  to  be  established  was  that 
at  Philadelphia,  which  was  opened  July  2nd,  1845, 
under  the  firm  style  of  William  Goodrich  &  Co.  The 
23artners  were  Wil-  _  _  ^  _ 
liam  Goodrich,  a 
highly  trusted  em- 
ployee of  Lewis 
Tappan  &  Co.,  and 
Edward  E.  Dunbar. 
It  was  agreed  that 
Mr.  Tappan  should 
receive  a  certain  sum 
out  of  the  profits  in 
return  for  relinquish- 
ing the  partnership 
and  affording  the 
new  branch  access  to 
all  the  information 
received  at  New 
York.  Within  six  months  the  success  of  the  new 
office  was  assured,  while  New  York  and  Boston  were 
supplied  with  full  and  thorough  reports  from  a  large 
section  of  the  country  that  had  previously  been  inade- 
quately reported,  and  the  number  of  correspondents 
throughout  the  region  greatly  increased.  During  the 
fall  of  1845,  Messrs.  Goodrich  and  Dunbar  urged  the 


NIIBtl  11  I 

"""nil  I  w- 


riiiladdpJiia  Office,  cstablislial  lS',r> 
Occupying  all  of  the  13th  and  most  of  the 
12th  floors  of  the  Lincoln  Building 


24 


T  HE         M  E  K  C  A  X  T  I  L  E         A  G  E  X  C  Y 

importance  of  opening  a  new  office  at  Baltimore,  as 
the  South  was  then  the  great  market  for  manufac- 
tures and  imports  of  all  kinds,  and  it  was  there  that 
reliable  credit  reports  were  most  urgently  needed. 
The  West  was  then  of  relatively  little  commercial 
importance,  Chicago 
having  a  population 
of  only  4,470,  while 
St.  Louis  was  a 
bustling  little  frontier 
river  port  and  fur- 
trade  center  with  16,- 
469  inhabitants.  Ac- 
cordingly, early  in 
1846,  an  office  was 
opened  at  Baltimore 
in  charge  of  Jabez  D. 
Pratt,  the  firm  style 
being  J.  D.  Pratt  & 
Co.  The  new  office 
had  the  entire  South 
for  its  district,  and 
therefore  soon  became  one  of  the  most  important  links 
in  the  Agency's  chain. 

In  1843,  when  the  first  branch  office  was  opened 
at  Boston  the  number  of  correspondents  of  the 
Agency  was  about  180,  the  list  covering  part  of  Xew 
England  and  the  States  of  New  York,  Xew  Jer- 
sey, Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  Michigan,  Indiana,  Illinois, 
Iowa  and  Wisconsin.    By  1846  the  number  of  corre- 


25 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E         Years        o  f 

spondents  of  tlie  Xew  York  office  was  352,  of  the  Bos- 
ton office  11,5,  and  the  Phihidelphia  office  212 — or  679 
altogether,  not  includin(>'  those  of  the  new  Baltimore 
office  which  had  just  been  organized.  The  jMercan- 
tile  Agency  was  then  fiye  years  old,  its  business  was 
firmly  established  and  all  of  its  branches  were  pros- 
pering. As  important  changes  in  its  management 
took  place  during  the  year  1846  that  date  may  fairly 
be  taken  as  indicating  the  end  of  the  period  of  incep- 
tion, when  the  plans  and  policies  of  the  youthful  and 
noyel  institution  were  necessarily  more  or  less  forma- 
tiye,  and  the  beginning  of  the  period  during  which 
the  fundamental  characteristics  of  The  jNIercantile 
Agency  of  to-day  were  clearly  determined. 


26 


CHAPTER  II 


The  Development  of  the  Mercantile  Agency 

Idea 

1846-1854 

Early  in  the  year  1846  increasing  differences 
of  opinion  between  Mr.  Taj^j^-'ii^  ^^^^  ^ii'-  Dunbar 
as  to  the  manner  in  which  the  business  of  The  ]Mer- 
cantile  Agency  should  b^  conducted  resulted  in  a 
dissolution  of  the  partnership,  ]Mr.  Tappan  purchas- 
ing INIr.  Dunbar's  interest  in  the  Xew  York  office, 
and  the  late  junior  partner  agreeing  "not  to  engage 
in  the  mercantile  agency  or  any  similar  business  prior 
to  July  1st,  1849."  On  December  31st,  :Mr.  Dunbar 
went  to  California,  selling  his  interest  in  the  Phila- 
delphia office  to  ]VIr.  Goodrich,  and  that  in  the  Bos- 
ton office  to  George  William  Gordon,  who  had  pre- 
viously been  Postmaster  at  Boston  and  Consul  Gen- 
eral at  Rio  de  Janeiro.  ]Mr.  Dunbar's  retirement 
from  the  business  left  Mr.  Tappan  in  sole  charge 
of  the  management  of  the  parent  institution  at 
Xew  York — a  responsibility  that  his  advancing  age 
and  huge  personal  correspondence  made  very  irk- 
some to  him. 

About  June,  1846,  IVIr.  Tappan  made  the  ac- 
quaintance of  Benjamin  Douglass,  the  eldest  son  of 
George  Douglass,  who  for  many  years  had  been  a 


27 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


successful  West  India  merchant  at  Baltimore,  ]Md., 
and  later  at  Xew  York.  After  being  associated  in 
business  with  his  father  for  a  number  of  years,  Benja- 
min Douglass  went  to  Charleston,  S.  C,  conduct- 
ing an  extensive  mercantile  business  there  for  some 
time,  and  then  removed  to  Xew  Orleans,  where  he 
extended  his  trade  to  all  parts  of  the  Mississippi  Val- 
ley. It  was  his  habit  to  investigate  the  credit  stand- 
ing of  his  customers  in  person,  making  extensive 
trij^s  for  that  purpose  throughout  the  South  and 
Southwest,  and  even  as  far  north  as  the  State  of  Ohio. 
Although  only  thirty  years  old  at  this  time,  ]Mr.  Doug- 
lass was,  therefore,  very  familiar  with  the  business 
methods  in  the  "country  trade,"  and  with  the  loose 
system  of  granting  credits  to  country  buyers  that  was 
then  customary.  This  experience  enabled  him 
to  appreciate  clearly  the  importance  and  value 
of  the  mercantile  agency  idea. 

Perceiving  that  the  unusually  wide  family  and 
business  connections  of  ]Mr.  Douglass  would  be  of 
inestimable  service  in  securing  for  The  ^lercantile 
Agency  the  support  of  the  South,  Mr.  Taj^pan  offered 
the  young  man  a  position  in  his  establishment  as 
confidential  clerk  and  secretary.  ]Mr.  Douglass  had 
hardly  been  in  the  office  two  weeks  before  he  pro- 
posed to  ^Ir.  Tappan  that  he  be  allowed  to  take 
charge  of  all  correspondence  relating  to  the  Agency, 
thus  leaving  his  employer  free  to  devote  his  time  to 
his  private  correspondence.  This  proposition  the 
elder  man  accepted  gladly,  and  the  new  associate  be- 

28 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 

came  at  once  head  clerk  and  the  virtual  manager  of 
the  business,  which — as  a  result  of  his  diligence  and 
skill — quickly  began  to  improve.   In  1847  Mr.  Doug- 


From  a  painting  in  the  possession  of  R.  G.  Dux  &  Co. 


BEXJAMIN  DOUGLASS 
Part  oicticr  of  The  Mercantile  Agencij  from  18^7  to  ISo^,  and  sole 
proprietor  from  185^  to  ISoii 

lass  acquired  a  third  interest  in  the  Agency,  ]Mr.  Tap- 
pan  retaining  the  other  two-thirds.  Benjamin  Doug- 


29 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


lass  was  a  man  of  connnanding  personality,  of  iron 
will  and  inflexible  loyalty  to  principle,  and  under  his 
direction  The  JNIercantile  Agency  began  to  develop 
along  broader  and  stronger  lines. 

The  first  result  of  the  new  spirit  injected  into 
the  management  of  the  business  was  a  marked 
strengthening  of  the  firm's  system  of  correspondents 
in  the  South.  Mr.  Douglass  earnestly  advocated  the 
opening  of  new  offices  in  the  South  and  West,  clearly 
perceiving  that  the  success  of  the  business  must  ulti- 
mately depend  upon  the  extent  and  thoroughness  of 
its  facilities  for  ascertaining  the  standing  of  mer- 
chants and  traders  in  all  sections  of  the  country. 
AVhile  no  new  offices  were  opened  in  1847  and  1848 
the  list  of  correspondents  was  greatly  extended. 
The  Philadelphia  office  reached  out  as  far  westward 
as  Pittsburgh,  while  the  service  of  the  Baltimore 
branch  covered  the  entire  South  to  Xew  Orleans. 
Mr.  James  H.  Taylor,  an  employee  of  the  Philadel- 
phia office  from  1847  until  1911 — a  period  of  sixty- 
four  years — in  an  interesting  account  of  the  early  his- 
tory of  the  Agency  in  that  city  wrote: 

Every  morning  we  received  a  package  of  letters 
from  New  York  City  and  from  Baltimore,  Md.,  by  the 
Adams  Express^  containing  reports  in  our  district  or 
that  we  were  interested  in,  for  us  to  cop}^  and  return^, 
while  we  daily  sent  a  package  of  reports  that  we  had 
received  and  written  up  to  these  offices.  ...  As  I  was 
noted  for  having  a  tenacious  memory^  Mr.  Goodrich 
would  send  me  to  various  leading  firms,  instructing  me 
to  ask  them  what  they  knew  about  the  parties  inquired 
for,  giving  me  orders  to  listen  attentively  to  what  they 

30 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


said  and  remember  tlie  conversation^  bring  it  back  and 
write  it  up,  wliicli  I  did,  and  that  was  the  basis  of  our 
city  reporting. 

On  June  1st,  1849,  Lewis  Tappan  retired  from 
The  Mercantile  Agency,  which  up  to  that  time  had 
been  known  as  Lewis  Tappan  &  Co.  He  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  brother,  Arthur  Tappan,  and  Benja- 
min Douglass,  each  of  whom  purchased  a  half  inter- 
est in  the  business.  As  Lewis  Tappan  never  again 
took  an  active  part  in  the  great  institution  he 


Aciy  York  (ntii  ahout  1855 
Showing  the  shippirifj  in  the  k<ist  /' i  re r— sailing  vessels  still  pre- 
dominating— and  the  low  sA//  Una  of  Manhattan  Island 


founded,  it  is  fitting  at  this  point  to  review  briefly  his 
work  in  the  early  years  of  its  inception  and  organi- 
zation. That  he  was  the  originator  and  founder  of 
the  first  organized  system  of  credit  reporting  in  the 
world  has  never  been  disputed.  This  fact  is  strongly 
emphasized  by  the  author  of  the  sketch  of  Lewis  Tap- 

31 


S  E  A  '  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I       E  Y  E  A  11  S  O  F 


})aii  in  Amcricd's  Advancement ,  published  in  187,5,  a 
portion  of  which  follows: 

We  liave  introduced  the  name  and  portrait  of  Mr. 
Ta})pan  into  this  work  because  he  is  identified  with  a 
very  important  movement  in  the  mercantile  world,  which 
may  almost  be  said  to  liave  revolutionized  the  method  of 
conducting  business,  especially  as  regards  dispensing- 
credits.  We  refer  to  The  jNIercantile  Agency  and  the 
system  pursued  under  tliat  name.  He  was,  during  his 
lifetime,  it  is  true,  identified  with  many  other  very  im- 
portant movements,  and  was  very  actively  instrumental 
in  carrying  them  forward.  .  .  .  But  of  the  mercantile 
agency  system,  he  may  fairly  be  called  the  originator, 
or  father, 

Mr.  Tappan  impressed  u])on  The  INIercantile  Agency 
liis  peculiar  cliaracteristics  almost  as  clearly  as  John 
Wesley  did  his  upon  Methodism;  and,  although  various 
adaptations  and  modifications  have  been  necessary  to 
meet  the  exigencies  of  business,  these  peculiarities  are 
still  clearly  discernible.  He  had  many  enemies  and 
many  admirers  during  his  lifetime,  as  men  of  strong 
will  and  purpose  are  apt  to  have;  but  no  one  ever 
doubted  his  perfect  honesty  and  fair-mindedness,  and 
his  desire  to  give  to  every  man  his  just  due. 

We  have  said  that  Mr.  Tappan  was  the  originator 
and  father  of  the  mercantile  agency  system.  W^e  be- 
lieve we  are  justified  in  using  these  terms.  Some  crude 
attempts  had  been  made,  it  is  true,  at  something  whicli 
was  intended  to  supply  what  the  Agency  supplies,  before 
his  time;  but  they  had  never  been  brought  to  any  practi- 
cal results ;  and,  indeed,  may  be  said  to  have  been  aban- 
doned when  Mr.  Tappan  entered  the  field.  The  idea 
suggested  itself  to  him  from  a  long  experience  of  his 
own  in  business,  and  a  knowledge  of  tlie  difficulty,  whicli 
all  dispensers  of  credit  experienced  at  that  time,  in 
obtaining  anything  like  tangible  information  on  wliicli 
to  operate.  While  in  the  house  of  Arthur  Tappan  & 
Co. — then  the  leading  dry-goods  firm  in  New  York — 
and  engaged  in  dispensing  its  credits,  he  had  little  to 
go  upon  except  such  information  as  could  be  gained 
from  otlier  houses  to  whicli  lie  was  referred  by  the  par- 


32 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

ties  themselves,  or  from  open  letters  of  introduction  or 
recommendation  which  the  applicants  brought  with  them 
from  some  influential  source  at  liome^,  and  wliich  were 
supplied  generally  at  their  own  request.  .  .  .  The  fact 
is,  that  credits  given  under  this  system  very  nearly  re- 
sembled wliat  Sir  Astley  Cooper  said  of  surgical  ojDera- 
tions  before  his  time^,  viz.,  that  "they  were  a  series  of 
doubtful  experiments."  We  seriously  question  whether 
a  system  which  so  completely  revolutionized  all  ideas 
of  business  usages  and  traditions  could  have  been  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  under  any  other  person.  At  least, 
we  are  quite  sure  that  there  are  very  few  persons  who 
could  have  done  it.  Mr.  Tappan,  in  the  first  place^  was 
a  man  well  known  in  the  community.  His  business  abil- 
ity was  almost  universally  recognized.  ...  In  short, 
his  acknowledged  business  shrewdness,  his  incorrupt- 
ible integrity,  and  the  fact  that  his  own  experience  as  a 
dispenser  of  credits  had  prompted  him  to  attempt  some- 
thing that  sliould  obviate  the  perplexities  he  had  himself 
felt,  were  all  strong  arguments  in  favor  of  a  movement 
in  the  direction  proposed  by  The  Mercantile  Agency, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  any  other  person  in  whom 
all  these  considerations  were  combined  in  the  same 
degree.  .  .  . 

]Mr.  Tappan  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  tree  that 
he  planted  grown  to  proportions  and  yielding  fruit  far 
beyond  what  he  himself  probably  anticipated ;  and  we 
doubt  whether  among  all  the  movements  and  enterprises 
with  which  he  was  identified,  he  will  find  as  lasting  a 
memorial,  or  as  distinct  a  recognition,  as  in  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency,  destined,  probably,  to  live  as  long  as 
commerce  or  civilization,  and  to  carry  with  it  the  name 
of  its  founder,  as  one  of  the  far-seeing  and  original 
minds  wliich  have  impressed  themselves  upon  the  his- 
tory, development  and  prosperity  of  their  country. 

No  finer  or  juster  tribute  to  the  genius  of  the 
founder  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  has  ever  been 
written  tlian  this,  and  the  forty  years  that  have  since 
elapsed  only  serve  still  further  to  emphasize  its  truth. 


33 


S  E  A'  E  N   T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  F 


Lewis  Tappan  lived  until  1873,  his  last  work  being 
the  preparation  of  a  life  of  his  brother  Arthur,  whieh 
was  published  in  1870.  In  1827  he  founded  the  New 
York  Journal  of  Com  mcrcc,  which  has  been  published 
continuously  ever  since. 

The  style  of  the 
firm  on  the  retirement 
of  Lewis  Tappan  was 
changed  to  Tappan  & 
pouglass,  A  r  t  h  u  r 
Tappan  becoming  the 
senior  partner  under 
an  agree  m  e  n  t  by 
which  he  contracted 
to  leave  the  business 
in  the  sole  jDrop'rietor- 
ship  of  his  associate  at 
the  end  of  five  years. 
To  the  men  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Agency, 
]Mr.  Douglass  was 
looked  upon  as  the 
guiding  spirit  of  the 
institution  and  his  in- 
fluence and  strong 
personality  now  began  to  modify  its  poHcies  materially. 
Arthur  Tappan  was  sixty-three  years  old,  and  it 
was  the  younger  partner  who  traveled  to  all  parts 
of  the  country  to  extend  and  strengthen  the  service 
of  the  Agency,  and  who  fought  its  battles.    In  1849, 


Cincinnati  Office,  established  1S.',9 
21ie  present  office  is  located  in  the  First 
Xational  Bank  Building 


34 


The      jNI  e  r  c  a  X  t  I  l  e       A  g  e  x  c  y 

]Mr.  Douglass  opened  a  branch  of  The  ^Mercantile 
Agency  at  Cincinnati,  which  was  then  the  great  me- 
tropolis of  the  western  trade,  with  a  population  of 
115,43,5.  The  office  was  operated  by  William  B. 
Pierce  and  Samuel  Richardson,  under  the  firm  style 
of  Wm.  B.  Pierce  &  Co.    The  new  venture  was  so 


Louimillc  Otftcc,  cstabUshetl  iSoO 
Main  room  of  the  present  office  in  the  Board  of  Trade  Buildinfj. 
There  are  five  other  rooms  occupied  hy  the  Agency 


successful  that  the  following  year  Wm.  B.  Pierce  & 
Co.  opened  an  office  at  Louisville,  the  sixth  in  the 
Agency's  chain.  While,  during  this  period,  the  plan 
of  giving  the  new  offices  separate  firm  styles  inaugu- 
rated by  Lewis  Tappan  was  continued,  ]Mr.  Doug- 
lass made  it  clear  that  e\'ery  office  must  be  subordi- 


Seven  t  y  -  r  i  v  i:         Years  of 


iiate  to  that  at  Xew  York,  where  the  j^oHcies  of  the 
institution  were  decided. 

In  18.50  an  office  was  opened  at  St.  Louis.  At 
that  time  the  trading  station  of  ten  years  before  had 
expanded  into  a  roaring  hive  of  frontier  industry 
and  commerce.  Long  hues  of  steamers  clung  to  the 
levee  along  the  river  front  and  tlie  merchandise  re- 
ceived and  distributed 
bore  the  names  of 
traders  throughout  the 
vast  region  drained  by 
the  Mississippi  and  its 
tributaries  —  an  em- 
pire for  one  INIercan- 
tile  Agency  district. 
The  new  office  was 
oj^ened  b  y  Charles 
Barlow,  who  remained 
in  charge  until  18.54, 
when  the  new  brancli 
was  thoroughly  estab- 
lished and  its  success 
assured.  T  h  e  firm 
style  at  the  outset  was 
Charles  Barlow  k  Co.  Among  the  first  correspond- 
ents of  the  St.  Louis  office  was  Abraham  Lincoln, 
then  a  successful  attorney  at  Springfield,  in  the  part 
of  Illinois  falling  within  the  St.  Louis  district.  The 
quaint  humor  that  enlivened  so  many  of  the  future 

36 


»Sf.  Louis  Office,  <  stdhlisJicd  ISoO 
The  present  office  is  located  in  Mechanics- 
American  Xational  Bank  Building 


The      Mercaxtile  Agexcy 


President's  public  utterances  was  not  absent  from 
his  reports  to  The  jNIercantile  Agency. 

The  arcliives  of  the  St.  Louis  office  still  contain 
records  showing  many  reports  written  by  ]Mr.  Lin- 
coln on  some  of  the  oldest  and  largest  concerns  in 
the  State  of  Illinois  during  those  early  days.  Xor 
was  he  the  only  correspondent  who  subsequently 
achieved  fame  in  professional  or  public  life.  ]Many  of 
the  offices  have  on  their  rolls  of  correspondents 


A  view  of  a  portion  of  the  St.  Louis  office, 
ivhich  occupies  12,500  square  feet  of  floor  space,  and  is  entirelij 
modern  throughout 


the  names  of  judges  in  the  highest  courts  of  their 
respective  States  and  in  the  courts  of  the  United 
States;  while  scores  of  the  corresi)ondents  of  the 
various  offices  have  since  become  Governors,  mem- 
bers of  the  LTnited  States  Senate  and  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives, and  of  State  Legislatures.  This,  in- 
deed, was  only  natural,  since  the  aim  of  the  Agency 
has  always  been  to  enlist  the  services  and  secure  the 
opinions  of  the  most  representative  men  in  every 

37 


Seven  t  y  -  f  i  v  e         Y  e  a  k  s  of 

coniniiinity — and  these  were  naturally  the  ones  most 
likely  to  he  selected  hv  their  fellow  citizens  for  politi- 
cal advancement.  It  may  he  of  interest  to  add,  in 
this  connection,  tliat  ex-Presidents  Arthur,  Cleve- 
land and  ]McKinley  were  also  associated  with  the 
work  of  the  Agency  prior  to  their  elevation  to  the 
highest  office  in  the  gift  of  their  countrymen. 

At  some  time  during  the  year  1851  a  new  em- 
ployee entered  the  service  of  The  ]MerOantile  Agency 
at  Xew  York  who  was  destined  to  play  a  most  promi- 
nent part  in  its  future  development.  This  was  Robert 
Graham  Dun,  whose  name  the  great  institution  now 
bears.  ]Mr.  Dun  was  born  at  Chillicothe,  Ohio,  Au- 
gust 7th,  1826,  of  Scotch  parentage.  His  grand- 
father was  the  Rev.  James  Dun,  for  twenty  years  a 
minister  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  at  Glasgow. 
In  1815  his  father,  Robert  Dun,  w^ho  had  also  been 
educated  for  the  ministry,  emigrated  to  the  United 
States  and  settled  at  Chillicothe.  The  trips  made 
by  ]Mr.  Douglass  to  Ohio  while  he  was  a  merchant  at 
Xew  Orleans  may  have  been  the  indirect  cause  of 
Mr.  Dun  entering  the  service  of  the  Agency,  for  at 
that  time  he  met  INIiss  Elizabeth  Dun,  a  sister  of 
Robert  G.  Dun,  whom  he  subsequently  married.  By 
a  remarkable  coincidence  JVIr.  Douglass  also  had  a 
sister  named  Elizabeth,  who  married  Mr.  Dun.  It 
was,  in  all  probability,  this  relationship  by  mar- 
riage that  directed  the  attention  of  INIr.  Douglass  to 
the  advantages  of  bringing  the  young  Ohioan  to  Xew 
York  to  assist  him  in  the  management  of  the  busi- 

38 


The      ]Me  RCA  X  tile  Agexcy 

ness.  He  was  himself  obliged  to  take  long  and  fre- 
quent tri2)s  to  distant  offices,  and  there  were  a  num- 
ber of  reasons  why  he  wished  to  leave  in  his  stead  at 
Xew  York  someone  in  whose  integrity,  good  judg- 
ment and  personal  loyalty  he  could  absolutely  rely. 
The  fact  that  the  life-long  friendship  between  the  two 
men  was  never  for  a  moment  interrujDted  clearly 
proves  that  he  found  these  qualities  combined  in 
his  young  brother-in-law  to  a  remarkable  degree. 
One  reason,  in  particular,  why  a  loyal  assistant  was 
needed  at  this  time  was  the  apj^roaching  retirement 
of  jNIr.  Tappan  from  the  Agency.  Certain  of  the 
older  employees  of  the  Taj^pans,  being  aware  of  the 
impending  change,  were  taking  steps  to  continue 
their  respective  branches  as  independent  concerns, 
while  JNIr.  Douglass  aimed  to  keep  the  organization 
together.  By  his  diligence  in  mastering  the  principles 
of  the  mercantile  agency  business,  and  his  watchful- 
ness in  safeguarding  the  interests  entrusted  to  his  care, 
JNIr.  Dun  quickly  won  the  complete  confidence  of 
ISlr.  Douglass,  nor  was  he  long  in  winning  the  es- 
teem of  the  mercantile  community  at  Xew  York. 

Early  in  1851  Mr.  Gordon,  the  head  of  the  Bos- 
ton office  of  The  jVIercantile  Agency,  was  again  ap- 
pointed Postmaster  of  that  city,  and  accordingly 
sold  his  interest  in  the  business  to  Edward  Russell. 
The  firm  style  at  Boston  was  therefore  changed  to 
Edward  Russell  &  Co. — under  which  name  that 
branch  of  the  business  continued  to  be  conducted  for 
ahnost  half  a  century. 

39 


S  E  V  i:  X  T  Y  -  r  I  Y  E         Y  e  a  r  s  of 

In  June,  1851,  The  ]Mercantile  Agency  had 
completed  the  first  decade  of  its  existence.  The  husi- 
ness  coniniunity  in  CYery  city  in  whicli  a  hranch  office 
had  heen  oj^ened  thus  far  had  heen  quick  to  recognize 
the  importance  and  Yalue  of  the  new  institution  and 
had  giYcn  it  a  generous  measure  of  support.  Fortu- 
nately a  contem23orary  pictin-e  of  the  actiYities  of 
the  Agency  at  this  period  of  its  dcYelopment  has 
come  down  to  us  in  the  form  of  an  article  that  ap- 
peared in  the  January,  1851,  numher  of  Hunt's  Mer- 
chants' Magazine  and  Commercial  Beview,  and  bears 
CYcry  CYidence  of  haYing  been  written  by  Freeman 
Hunt  himself.  The  following  extracts  from  this  arti- 
cle are  of  particular  interest  as  showing  how  the  first 
Mercantile  Agency  in  the  world  was  regarded  by  the 
public  when  it  was  ten  years  old. 

THE  MERCANTILE  AGENCY 

This  institution,  which  lias  now  been  many  years  in 
operation,  has  grown  to  be  so  important  to  the  mercan- 
tile community  that  we  feel  it  due  to  our  subscribers  to 
notice  it  in  our  pages.  .  .  .  Our  present  remarks,  while 
they  are  intended  to  cover  the  system,  have  reference 
more  particularly  to  the  oldest  and  most  extensive  of 
these  agencies,  conducted  by  Messrs.  Tappan  &  Doug- 
lass, which  we  have  personally  inspected. 

This  is  not  only  an  extensive,  influential,  and,  as  we 
believe,  useful  institution  in  New  York,  but  is  extended 
by  associate  offices  to  Boston,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore, 
Cincinnati,  St.  Louis  and  Louisville ;  and  contemplates 
a  still  further  extension,  so  as  to  embrace  all  the  im- 
portant centers  of  trade  in  the  United  States.  But, 
though  known  and  appreciated  by  a  majority  of  the 
merchants  in  the  large  cities,  we  are  aware  that  a  preju- 


40 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


dice  exists  against  it  in  some  quarters.  Our  object  is,  if 
possible,  to  remove  that  prejudice,  by  presenting  tlie 
matter  to  our  readers  in  the  light  in  which  it  now  appears 
to  us.  We  say  noiv,  for  we  are  free  to  acknowledge 
that  our  own  "first  impressions"  were  unfavorable.  On 
a  full  examination  of  the  subject,  however,  we  are  con- 
vinced that  those  impressions  were  founded  in  ignorance 
of  the  system.  We  have  recently  taken  pains  to  inform 
ourselves,  and  do  not  hesitate  to  say,  that  the  Agency  is 
conducted  on  high  and  honorable  principles,  and  is  truly 
and  extensively  useful,  not  only  to  the  city  merchants, 
for  whose  immediate  benefit  it  was  devised  and  estab- 
lished, but  to  all  sound,  upright,  industrious  traders 
throughout  the  land. 

In  our  review  of  this  system,  we  shall  briefly  advert, 
first  to  the  object  of  the  mercantile  agencies,  and  then 
to  their  operations. 

And,  first,  as  to  their  object.  Immediately  after  the 
terrible  mercantile  revolution  in  1837,  when  our  whole 
system  of  internal  commerce  was  prostrate,  and  nearly 
all  its  operators  bankrupt,  this  Agency  was  planned,  and 
put  into  operation,  as  a  remedy  for  some  of  the  diffi- 
culties which  had  just  been  so  heavily  experienced.  Its 
design  was  to  uphold,  extend,  and  render  safe  and  prof- 
itable to  all  concerned,  the  great  credit  system,  on  which 
our  country  had  thriven,  doing  business  to  an  immense 
amount  with  all  the  world,  and  using  the  capital  of  the 
world  to  do  it  with. 

At  the  outset  it  was  mainly  intended  as  an  aid  to  the 
Jobber.  His  customers,  scattered  over  many  States, 
were  periodically  visiting  him  for  the  purpose  of  renew- 
ing their  stocks  of  goods;  generally  canceling  in  whole, 
or  in  part,  previous  obligations,  while  they  contracted 
new  ones.  The  intelligent  jobber  would  necessarily 
need  to  be  informed,  on  the  opening  of  a  new  account, 
respecting  the  then  circumstances  of  his  customer.  From 
year  to  year  he  would  desire  to  be  freshly  advised  of 
the  good  or  ill  success  attending  him. 

To  carry  out  tlie  credit  system,  intelligently  and 
safely,  the  creditor  must  be  well  acquainted  with  the 
debtor's  financial  condition  and  general  standing.  Con- 
fidence is  the  life  of  the  system,  and  confidence  can  rest 


41 


S  E  y  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


only  in  knowledu'e.  Before  tlie  establislnnent  of  this 
Agency  our  merchants  were  in  the  habit  of  gettinii;  sncli 
information  of  tlieir  customers  as  they  could,  by  corre- 
spondence or  otherwise.  Some  of  tlie  larger  houses, 
whose  business  would  justify  the  expense,  employed 
traveling  agents.  These  they  kept  constantly  out,  in 
different  parts  of  the  country,  looking  after  and  report- 
ing their  debtors,  and  collecting  debts.  The  smaller 
houses  were,  of  course,  deficient  in  the  knowledge  so 
necessary  to  their  success  in  business,  while  the  larger 
ones  purchased  their  information  at  too  high  a  cost. 
The  Agency  obviates  these  difficulties.  By  an  extensive 
and  well-sustained  system  of  correspondents,  extending 
to  every  part  of  the  United  States  and  Canada,  it  ob- 
tains the  requisite  information  respecting  every  trader 
in  the  country  whose  business  leads  liim  to  contract 
debts  away  from  home.  This  information  is  copied  in 
books  prepared  for  the  purpose,  and  held  for  the  use  of 
such  merchants  as  pay  for  it,  and  want  it.  It  is  not  made 
public.  It  is  not  communicated,  even  to  subscribers, 
except  when  a  trader,  by  soliciting  credit,  renders  in- 
quiry into  his  circumstances  necessary.  It  is  made 
known  only  to  those  wath  whom  he  proposes  to  trade. 
If  he  does  not  ask  a  credit  at  all,  it  remains  on  the 
record,  unread  and  unseen,  from  year  to  year. 

It  appears,  then,  that  the  object  of  the  system  is  sim- 
ply to  furnish  the  merchant  subscriber  Avith  such  infor- 
mation as  will  enable  him  to  judge  whether  or  not, 
and  to  what  extent,  he  should  give  credit  to  parties 
applying  for  it — thereby  rendering  the  credit  system 
safe  and  profitable.  .  .  .  The  rapid  growth  of  the 
Agency  during  the  past  five  years,  its  vastly  increased 
patronage,  and  the  increasing  confidence  in  it  by  the 
merchants  in  our  large  cities,  are  sufficient  proof  that 
the  reports  furnished  are  substantially  correct,  and  a 
safe  guide  in  their  credit  operations.  We  have,  also, 
tested  this  point  on  a  small  scale,  but  quite  to  our  own 
satisfaction.  We  have  inquired  for  parties  well  known 
to  us,  and  found  the  reports,  in  all  cases,  in  admirable 
harmony  with  our  own  opinion  and  knowledge  of  facts. 

A  simple  inspection  of  the  office  in  New  York  is 
sufficient  to  satisfy  any  man  that  it  is  largely  and  liber- 


42 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 


ally  patronized.  Shrewd  men  do  not  make  an  expensive 
show  of  biLsiness  merely  for  etfeet.  Upward  of  thirty 
men  are  constantly  occupied  in  the  details  of  this  office 
alone^  condensing,  copying,  and  giving  out  reports,  car- 
rying on  the  correspondence,  etc.  Their  records  are 
contained  in  more  than  100  books,  of  the  size  of  the  larg- 
est ledger,  extending  to  600  and  700  pages  each. 

One  other  point  in  the  operations,  and  one  of  con- 
siderable importance,  remains  to  be  noticed,  and  that 
is  its  effect  upon  the  country  trader.  On  this  point,  we 
have  expressed  the  opinion,  which  is  the  result  of  delib- 
erate examination,  that  the  system  is  as  useful  to  those 
who  seek  credit  as  to  the  city  merchants  who  are  called 
upon  to  give  it.  It  is  a  well-known  fact  that,  formerly, 
the  trader  was  confined  in  his  purchases  to  a  few 
houses,  where  he  might  have  formed  an  acquaintance.  If 
wholly  unacquainted,  he  was  obliged  to  take  letters  from 
responsible  parties  at  home,  and  was  limited  in  his  busi- 
ness relations  to  the  few  to  whom  those  letters  were 
addressed.'  Under  the  present  arrangement,  the  trader 
needs  no  letter  of  introduction.  He  is  known  to  the 
whole  list  of  the  Agency's  subscribers,  or.  if  not  known, 
becomes  so.  as  soon  as  he  asks  a  credit.  He  has  the  range 
of  the  entire  market  in  all  the  cities  where  these  offices 
are  established;  the  communication  between  them  being 
such  that  what  is  known  to  one  is  known  to  all.  He 
need  not  even  leave  home  to  make  his  purchases.  His 
order  is  as  good  as  his  presence.  .  .  .  This,  surely,  is 
a  great  advantage,  which  the  honest,  capable,  and  trust- 
worthy trader  cannot  fail  to  appreciate.  We  are  confi- 
dent, from  what  we  have  seen  and  learned  of  the  work- 
ings of  the  system,  that  the  instances  in  which  it  enlarges 
credit  to  tjie  country  trade  are  vastly  more  numerous 
than  those  in  which  it  restrains  or  prevents  it.  There 
are,  doubtless,  many  w^ho,  without  being  aware  of  it, 
are  now  indebted  to  this  Agency  for  a  good  standing 
and  a  favorable  position,  in  places,  and  with  houses, 
where  once  they  were  wholly  unknown.  Their  sphere 
of  operations  is  enlarged,  their  business  acquaintances 
increased,  and  all  their  facilities  for  conducting  a  prof- 
itable trade  greatly  extended. 


43 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


A  second  advantaiic.  and  by  no  means  a  light  one, 
■vvliich  the  country  trader  derives  from  this  system,  is 
the  protection  it  att'ords  against  tlie  unhealthy  and  in- 
jurious competition  of  fraudulent  or  incompetent  neigh- 
bors in  the  same  business.  There  is  no  greater  draw- 
back to  the  success  of  an  honest,  industrious  tradesman 
in  a  small  town  or  village,  than  tlie  irregular,  sluiffling 
transactions  of  a  weak,  lame,  broken-winged  or  wing- 
less rival,  M'lio  does  everything  at  haphazard,  buying 
at  any  price,  and  selling  at  any  sacrifice,  merely  to  keep 
up  a  flow  of  business  out  of  which  he  may  manage  to  live 
for  the  time  being.  There  are  many  grades  of  such 
characters  in  the  business  world.  Some  of  them  are 
flagrantly  dishonest,  expecting  and  willing  to  fail  now 
and  then,  and  resolved,  at  all  events,  to  have  a  living 
out  of  any  whom  they  can  surprise  into  trusting  them. 
Some,  on  the  other  hand,  are  well-intentioned  but  in- 
competent; without  knowing  why,  or  how,  they  find 
themselves  every  now  and  then  in  failing  circumstances. 
These  are  more  to  be  respected  than  the  other  class,  but 
scarcely  more  to  be  trusted.  They  are  as  much  in  the 
way  of  the  capable,  energetic,  well-trained  business 
man's  success  as  the  other.  They  have  no  rules  to  go 
by;  but  provide,  as  they  can,  for  each  exigency  as  it 
arises.  They  never  know  wdiat  they  are  worth,  or 
whether  they  are  worth  anything  at  all.  When  they 
open  an  account,  or  give  a  note,  they  never  know  whether 
they  can  pay  it  or  not.  They  hope  to  pay  it,  and  in- 
tend to,  if  they  can.  The  experience  of  every  well-bred 
merchant  and  trader  can  furnisli  originals  for  the  pic- 
ture. Against  the  vexatious  and  ruinous  competition  of 
such  men.  The  Mercantile  Agency  is  designed  and  calcu- 
lated to  protect  them.  It  would  not  injure  the  weak 
or  the  unfortunate  but  would  commend  them  to  employ- 
ments which  they  are  capable  of  managing.  Trade  is  a 
science,  to  which  many,  who  would  make  excellent  me- 
chanics or  agriculturists,  are  w^holly  incompetent. 

xV  third  advantage  to  the  capable  and  enterprising 
trader,  is  found  in  the  fact  that  he  is,  by  this  system, 
brought  very  near  to  his  creditors,  is  as  it  were,  always 
under  their  eyes,  and  will,  consequently,  be  stimu- 
lated to  greater  watchfulness,  care  and  circumspection 


44 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 


in  his  business*.  He  will  not  be  so  readily  tempted 
into  rash  speculations  or  other  irregular  transactions, 
which  so  often  result  in  disaster  and  dishonor.  It  is 
no  discredit,  even  to  an  honest  man,  to  say  that  he  is 
safer  under  the  wholesome  restraints  and  jealous  vigi- 
lance of  society  than  he  would  be  without  them.  ^Nlany 
a  man,  -with  the  most  upright  intentions,  and  the  most 
confident  expectations  of  a  favorable  result,  has  been 
induced  to  invest  a  portion  of  his  means,  or,  to  speak 
more  properly,  of  the  means  of  his  creditors,  in  some 
promising,  but  unfortunate  enterprise,  which  he  would 
not  have  touched  if  those  creditors  had  been  near  and 
cognizant  of  the  movement.  Prudence  is  the  better  part, 
not  only  of  valor,  but  of  thrift ;  and  prudence,  like  the 
other  virtues,  is  all  the  better  for  being  watched. 

Under  the  old  system,  it  was  impossible  to  hold  an 
effective  check  upon  the  imprudent  speculations  of  good 
men,  or  the  swindling  speculations  of  bad  ones.  Such 
operations  were,  in  general,  known  onl}^  to  those  who 
suffered  by  them;  and  the  operators  having  lost  credit 
with  them,  had  onlv  to  beg-in  ao;ain  with  some  new  con- 
cern,  and  repeat  the  operation.  Sometimes  it  happened 
that  a  trader,  who  had  run  himself  out  with  one  set  of 
creditors,  would  by  them  be  palmed  off  upon  another, 
as  one  whom  they  had  trusted — the  object  of  the  intro- 
duction being  to  get  their  own  pay,  in  full,  by  shifting 
off  the  debt  on  their  friends. 

On  all  such  operations,  the  Agency  is  an  admirable 
check.  The  parties  reported  are  known,  not  to  their 
present  creditors  only,  but  to  all  with  whom  they  seek 
to  open  a  credit.  .  .  .  Such  a  check  we  regard  as  decid- 
edly salutary  and  wholesome,  and  equally  so  to  the 
well-meaning  and  prudent  trader  as  to  his  prudent 
creditor. 

These  principles  appear  to  ils  so  plain  and  palpable 
that  they  need  only  to  be  stated.  If,  among  the  class 
of  traders,  who  want  more  credit  than  they  find  them- 
selves able  to  get,  any  one  is  still  disposed  to  object, 
we  take  leave  to  ask  on  what  principles  he  conducts 
his  own  business  at  home.  Does  he  trust  anybody, 
and  everybody,  without  asking  a  question?  When  a 
stranger  comes  into  the  neighborhood,  does  he  open  an 


45 


5  E  A    E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  EARS  OF 

account  -with  liim  at  once^  and  to  an  unlimited  extent, 
M'ithout  inquiring  into  liis  affairs?  Does  he  think  it 
mean,  or  dishonorable,  to  send  to  the  place  from  whicli 
the  stranger  came,  and  ascertain  how  far  he  was  re- 
garded worthy  of  credit  there?  Does  he  think  the 
former  neighbors  of  the  newcomer  mean,  or  dislionor- 
able,  if  they  tell  him  frankly  what  tliey  think,  thereby 
securing  him  a  good  customer,  or  saving  him  from  a  bad 
one?  By  no  means.  Tlie  principle  is  universal.  It 
belongs  to  the  retail  credit  business  as  well  as  to  the 
wholesale.  It  governs  the  trader,  selling  his  hundreds 
or  tliousands,  as  well  as  the  importer,  in  selling  his  tens 
of  thousands,  or  millions.  Confidence,  as  we  have  before 
said,  is  the  life  of  credit,  and  knowledge  is  the  life  of 
confidence.    Business  cannot  go  on  without  it. 

Prior  to  July,  1851,  it  was  the  policy  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency  to  refrain  from  reporting  the 
trade  in  the  cities  in  which  its  offices  were  located. 
Mr.  Douglass  saw  that  this  would  in  time  create  two 
distinct  classes  in  the  business  community — those  who 
were  reported  u23on  and  those  who  were  not.  At  the 
outset  the  Agency  offices  had  been  located  in  the 
cities  engaged  chiefly  in  selling  to  the  country  trade, 
but  now  the  chain  included  seyeral  points  where  the 
traders,  w^hile  sellers  in  their  respectiye  districts,  were 
buyers  in  the  eastern  centers.  He,  accordingly,  di- 
rected the  yarious  managers  to  report  their  respective 
cities  for  the  benefit  of  the  other  offices. 

In  the  fall  of  1851  a  branch  office  was  opened  at 
New  Orleans,  under  the  firm  style  of  B.  Douglass 

6  Co.  The  name  indicates  another  important 
change  in  the  policy  of  The  ^Mercantile  Agency, 
namely,  the  discontinuance  of  the  plan  of  establish- 
ing branches  under  the  names  of  the  yarious  local 


46 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

managers.  The  New  Orleans  office  was  a  branch  of 
the  parent  company  at  New  York  and  nothing  more, 
its  resident  manager  being  simply  a  salaried  employee, 
and  not  a  partner.  As  a  result  of  this  new  plan, 
which  JNIr.  Douglass  steadfastly  followed  thereafter. 
The  Mercantile  Agency  became  a  nation-wide  organ- 
ization with  a  single  directing  executive  at  the  head 
office  in  New  York,  and  a  uniform  policy  in  all  its 
branches  throughout  the  country. 

In  the  closing 
months  of  1851  the 
Agency  encountered 
the  most  serious  crisis 
in  its  brief  history  thus 
far.  An  action  for  li- 
bel had  been  brought 
against  Lewis  Tap- 
pan  by  John  B.  and 
Horace  Beardsley,  of 
Norwalk,  Ohio.  The 
suit  was  tried  before 
Judge  Betts  of  the 
United  States  Dis- 
trict Court  in  the  city 
of  New  York,  from 
November  24th  to  December  18th,  the  trial  attracting 
great  public  attention  and  being  extensively  reported 
in  the  New  York  daily  papers  during  its  progress. 
The  question  involved  in  this  case  was  the  fundamental 
one  whether  those  who  established  mercantile  agencies 
47 


New  Orleans  Office,  established  1851 
Noio  occupying  the  second  floor  of  the 
New  Orleans  National  Bank  Buildinf/ 


S  E  \  i:  X  T  Y  -  1'  I  y  E         Years  of 

could  have  clerks  and  corresj^ondents  to  aid  them  or 
not,  and  could  he  compelled  to  reveal  who  their  cor- 
respondents were.  The  great  hattle  of  the  trial  took 
place  over  the  latter  issue.  Benjamin  Douf^lass,  who 
had  heen  called  as  a  witness,  was  asked  during  the 
cross-examination  whether  in  1848  (the  date  of  the 
alleged  libel)  Lewis  Tapj^an  had  any  agent  or  cor- 


A  corner  of  the  Neic  Orleans  office 
Showing  a  feiv  of  the  caMnets  in  which  the  records  are  Kept — 
which  here  go  hack  65  years 


respondent  in  the  town  of  Norwalk,  Ohio.  After  care- 
ful reflection  Mr.  Douglass  declined  to  answer  this 
question  and  the  judge  adjourned  court  in  order  to 
consider  at  length  the  legal  authorities  cited  by  both 
sides.  The  following  morning,  Tuesday,  December 
9th,  the  court  denied  the  witness  the  privilege  to  de- 

48 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

cline.  The  question  was  thereuj)on  repeated,  and  the 
witness  again  declined  to  answer.* 

The  judge,  in  admonishing  the  witness,  said  that 
lie  was  too  intelligent  a  man  not  to  know  that  his 
first  duty  as  a  citizen  was  obedience  to  the  law;  the 
law  required  him  to  answer  and  he  ought  to  do  so. 
Mr.  Douglass,  who  was  evidently  prepared  for  this 
demand,  rej^lied : 

It  is  with  deep  regret^  sir,  that  I  feel  myself  driven 
by  an  imperious  necessity  to  refuse  obedience  to  the 
order  of  this  court.  My  respect  for  you  personally, 
aside  from  that  due  to  your  office,  makes  this  action 
painful.  I  entertain  the  greatest  respect  and  venera- 
tion for  the  laws  of  my  country  and  her  courts  of  jus- 
tice; but  I  have  maturely  deliberated  on  this  question, 
and  feel  bound  to  come  to  the  conclusion  to  decline  to 
answer.  When  I  first  went  into  the  employment  of  Mr. 
Lewis  Tappan,  as  his  confidential  clerk,  he  demanded, 
and  I  gavCj  a  solemn  pledge,  under  no  circumstances, 
to  disclose  the  names  of  the  agents,  or  of  any  one  of 
them,  but  to  keep  them  an  inviolable  secret  within 
my  own  breast.  I  have  done  so.  I  thought  that  Mr. 
Tappan  had  a  legitimate  right  to  demand  that  pledge, 
and  that  it  was  proper  for  me  to  give  it.  I  did  not  see 
in  my  giving  that  pledge,  that  it  could  have  an  injurious 
effect  on  the  public  interest.  I  thought  Mr.  Tappan's 
business  a  useful  one.  I  believed  it  greatly  promotive 
of  good  morals  and  of  a  sound,  healthy  ^tate  of  trade. 
But,  sir,  I  am  now  one  of  the  successor^  of  Mr.  Tappan 
in  this  very  business,  and  many  of  his  former  agents 
are  my  agents,  and  I  am  now  bound  to  them  as 
Mr.  Tappan  then  was,  and  these  agents  are  numerous 
all  over  the  country.  I  feel  myself  held  by  a  solemn 
obligation  to  these  agents,  and  it  is  in  order  to  save 
myself  from  the  disgrace  and  infamy,  which  I  believe 
would  follow  me  in  answering  this  question,  that  I  have 

*  From  report  of  the  trial  in  the  New  York  Herald  of  Decemher  12th,  1851. 


49 


S  E  Y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  Y  E  Y  E  A  K  S  OF 

resolutely  determined,  though  very  respectfully^  to  the 
court;,  to  decline  to  answer,  and  I  assure  you  had  tliis 
court  the  power  to  deprive  me  of  my  life,  and  sliould 
they  threaten  it,  I  w^ould  yet  fearlessly  stand  by  and 
preserve  intact  my  sacred  honor.  For  these  reasons. 
Judge  Betts,  I  feel  that  I  am  fully  justified  before  my 
fellow  citizens,  and  I  hope  before  the  court,  in  declin- 
ing to  answer  this  question.  If  your  honor  still  per- 
sists in  your  determination  to  compel  me  to  answer, 
although  it  would  be  very  unpleasant  to  be  deprived  of 
my  liberty,  and  separated  from  my  family,  still,  there 
is  no  alternative,  and  I  have  resolved  to  face  the 
situation. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  address  the  witness  was 
committed  to  the  Eldridge  Street  Jail,  for  contempt 
of  court,  where  he  remained  twenty  days.  The  judge 
allowed  him  to  be  confined  in  the  house  in  front  of  the 
jail,  but  a  part  of  it.  He  had  a  room  on  the  first  floor, 
where  he  carried  on  business  as  if  he  were  in  his  own 
office,  messengers  going  to  and  fro  CYcry  day.  The  trial 
continued  until  December  18th,  resulting  in  a  Yerdict 
for  the  plaintiff.  On  appeal  to  the  United  States  Cir- 
cuit Court  this  judgment  was  affirmed,  but  on  sub- 
sequent appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  it  was  rcYcrsed.  During  this  incarceration  in 
the  defense  of  a  principle  upon  which,  in  his  opin- 
ion, the  Yery  existence  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
depended,  ]Mr.  Douglass  was  Yisited  by  all  of  the  em- 
ployees in  the  Xew  York  office  and  presented  with 
the  Address  reproduced  on  the  opposite  page.  He 
subsequently  stated  that  his  determined  refusal  to 
answer  the  question  put  to  him  "aided  greatly  in  es- 
tablishing the  agencies  in  the  confidence  of  the  pubhc, 

50 


heg  /eat. 


Ut7//  UptJ!' 


recognizes  a  rtgM 
UndedJ,  wAen  i/ie  tn!t 

jland  you  look  on  iht 


•  "  aMres.t,  (jpresswe  of  c 


'/erA-s  of  lAe  cjt 
e/ee/jf^^^^^^)  with  i/ou  in  ijour  present,  painful  jifuahon, 

fVe  regard  {/le  /ate  a//emp/  6t/  Juc/ye  BeUs  lo  compel  t/ou.  as  a 
cerlain  questions  objected  toby  you,  as  fi?  (^aaSniaaa)  of 
;irip/e,  da:u/erous  in  tendency .  and  oppresiive  in  result   We  cannot  suppose  /Aat  tke  i^^^^^) 
:      :  :  ;  :    '/n  individual  mto  a  /t/lMc  .^irficMCl^/      -/uii .^Uvole'JtihTlAi^i  (to  uhicA  these  ifuestions  directty 
i./j"1y'^^^uMu^jn|tt^)  f?^  not  demaiu^  it 

Jfe  Jiaifc  maried  witA  JiiyA  sa/isftution  //(-(^on^aMel;^^?i^^a^) 
occasion,  so  indicaiii/e  of  the  "nobility  of  m3.T\\\i>o(i"  a//d  so  creditab/e  lo  ycur  own/^^^^^^'^^^^^^i^^^^  Your 
address  to  He  Court  does^qual  Aoiwr  to  you  as  a(^T72^^U'Ao(^^§PJ^T^/^H^/^Ch^yand  as  (zn^^^S^H^T)  u'Ao  is  determaied  to praaiv 
m(^^^(^^  the  {^^den^  reposed  mbim.       '^^^^^  ^ 

Ke  Aat^e^jwt^  uords .  dear  Sir ,  m  u/AtcA  to  express  our  mdiy nation  at 
lAis  (^tH^^  on  your  persona/  libertt/ ,  nor  our  strong  and  earrust  (^^tJSAX^^^  witA  you  in  tAe  suffinny  it  entails  Bi^l  ijou  are 
not  atone  in  your  si^ertngs  Jar  conscience  saAe.  /n  atl  ages,  and  in  all  eomniunities ,  there  hai^  been,  and  are ,  diose  who  Aave  resolved,  like 
you,  regardless  of  conseguences f  kKt:\e?>%\^  to  stand  by  and  preseTV'e^nfact  their  sacred  honor"  It  is  therefore  that,  while  u-e  express 
our  feelings  in  your  msfortane .  u-e  can  congralidalc  tjou  on  «/■  (TRT^U^^^h)  over  an  expedieiug  thai  would  seek  to  elei'ote  itself 
above.  tji£  /qffiness  ^/^^(^rljicipl^j^ 

We  cannot  auotd  remar/cinff  that        ourselves  participate  in  some 
degree  in  your  affliclwn.  We  Aare  la  regret  tAe  absence  of  Ann  uAo  ivas  the /^j^  tZfu{ ^tio  of  our  operations  ,^  of  one  uAose  c/is<ll/ 
/Ui/^ttUn^  andM^U^/U  CCtl/llde/  constituted  our  safest  appeal  in  all  cases  of  doubt  or  difftadty.  But  on  the  other  hand  we  coiir 
cdve  that  u-e  borrow  some  of  the  (^^T^^  ^\your  position,  in  as  much  as       .'  <'/'({ee]^^^l.in^me  measizre^gf 

^'^sis^;,  and  are  idejitjfied  ii-ith  that (^^^^^  u-hich  ijou  hm-e  Jo^^il  UuI;.  tv^rS^  so  (^^^fuff^(^6taU^d^ 

[n  tde  manner  u-e  feel  cainnated  in  the  discharge  of  our  duty  by  the  exam/..:.    ,  the  consistent  performance  of  yours. 

 ;-s^-5,--—  y-'—C^ f^-~~-iZ:>~~..      An  your (^bii^i)<jiX\^{jJ of  what  aJt  must  regard  as  a  just  prin- 
ciple, the^^^^WS^'^;^^^jfjh^^Xl-m^f^^\^^Aave  the jurest__giJam^e  of  your (^00^^^^^,  your  '^TRONS^VS-J/f 


SVSXNSeJ^,  and 


the  strongest  assurance^lhat  their  ^I^TESSSTS^  are  priJtected ,  and  WVj?]]^^Yj  u-iU  recognize  and  appreciate  the  consistency 

with  which  you  have  maintained  u-hal  uv  conceiie  to  be ,  their,  and  gour,{\\l^iC^\.vi  au^  ^UloUitia^k^U^^^m  their  utmostl^^_ 

W'lli  ardent  prayers  for  your  speedy  restoration  to  you 
^^eil£/,  c^ai^^ii/,  ve>l^ 

.Jfitiy  Je^/d  ycfA'^y 


:  f^^^y2^.It   ^ 


ifOtt/lili 


Te-itimonial  presented  to  Benjamin  Douglass       the  employees  of 
The  Mercantile  Ayency,  December  loth,  iSol 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E         Years  of 

because  men  saw  that  they  could  giye  information  to 
the  agencies,  and  that  these  would  not  betray  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  them."*  His  action  in  this  matter 
was  so  highly  regarded  by  his  fellow  citizens  that  a 
delegation  of  them,  headed  by  Horace  Greeley,  waited 
upon  him  to  offer  the  nomination  to  the  office  of 
Mayor  of  the  city.  This  offer  he  was  compelled  to 
decline,  because  the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  the 
management  of  the  Agency  were  such  that  he  did  not 
feel  at  liberty,  in  justice  to  his  associates  and  subscrib- 
ers, to  relinquish  them  for  the  sake  of  seeking  politi- 
cal preferment.  Later  oj^inion  has  confirmed  the 
judgment  of  his  contemporaries  with  respect  to  the 
merits  of  the  position  taken  by  j\Ir.  Douglass  and  the 
courage  with  which  he  maintained  his  conyictions. 
"In  its  way,  his  action  was  like  that  of  John  Hamp- 
den." "His  refusal  to  answer  a  question  tending  to 
disclose  matters  communicated  to  him  in  confidence 
.  .  .  shows  a  high  degree  of  honor  and  courage,  and 
his  statement  of  his  reasons  is  lofty  and  noble  in  ex- 
pression." "He  was  as  true  as  steel."  These  are 
some  typical  comments. 

In  1852  the  chain  of  offices  operated  by  The 
Mercantile  Agency  was  further  extended  by  a 
branch  at  Pittsburgh.  The  Philadelphia  office  had 
already  obtained  a  number  of  subscribers  among  the 
leading  firms  there,  but  in  accordance  with  his  policy 
of  haying  no  more  semi-independent  branches  INIr. 

*Joseph  W.  Errant,  The  Law  Relating  to  Mercantile  Agencies,  page  22. 
Mr.  Errant  adds  :  "The  judgment  for  the  plaintiff  in  this  case  is,  of  course, 
an  exception,  and  must  be  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  courts  and  the  public 
were  not  yet  educated  up  to  the  needs  and  objects  of  the  mercantile  agencies." 

52 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


Douglass  opened  the  Pittsburgh  office  under  the  firm 
style  of  B.  Douglass  &  Co.  The  Philadelphia  office 
wrote  up  a  set  of  books  for  the  younger  office  to 
start  with,  conipi-ising  the  names  on  its  records  for 
Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, Western  Mary- 
1  a  n  d,  Southwestern 
Virginia,  and  South- 
ern and  Eastern 
Ohio.  At  that  time 
Pittsburgh  had  46,601 
inhabitants  and  w^as 
already  one  of  the 
foremost  industrial 
centers  in  the  country. 
In  1853  an  office  was 
established  at  Charles- 
ton, South  Carolina, 
under  the  firm  style  of 
B.  Douglass  &  Co.  In 
those  days  the  South 
was  relatively  much 
more  developed  than 
the  Xorth  and  West, 
cotton  being  a  staple 
that  was  in  steady  demand  for  export.  Charleston  had 
a  population  of  42,985  in  the  census  of  1850,  as  com- 
pared with  29,963  for  Chicago  at  the  same  date.  The 
fact  that  Mr.  Douglass  had  for  a  time  engaged  in 
business  there  may  have  also  influenced  his  decision  to 


lllili^ 
gggglE 

§llli& 

eiiils 
iiiiii 
PiiiiP 
mill 
iiiiii 

f  !  •  ■  P  r 


Pittshurgh  Office,  opened  1S52 
The  present  offiee  occupies  the  entire  11th 
floor  of  the  Keenan  Building 


53 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

make  this  the  tenth  office  in  the  Agency  cliain.  The 
ra2)id  growth  of  the  Agency  during  this  period  is 
indicated  hy  the  fact  that  in  1854  the  number  of  sub- 
scribers of  the  Philadelj^hia  office  reached  1,000,  INIr. 
Goodrich  giving  a  dinner  at  the  INIerchants'  Hotel,  in 
honor  of  the  event. 

On  June  1st  of  that  year  Benjamin  Douglass 
assumed  the  sole  ownership  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency.  As  this  date  marks  so  important  a  change 
in  the  control  of  the  institution  it  may  also  be  taken 
as  terminating  the  period  during  which  the  policies 
were  in  process  of  development.  As  w^e  have  seen, 
Benjamin  Douglass  was  the  dominant  factor  in  shap- 
ing the  destinies  of  the  Agency  during  this  period 
of  its  history  and  the  fact  that  it  has  survived  to  this 
day  was  undoubtedly  due  to  his  efforts.  He  had  dur- 
ing these  few  years  greatly  strengthened  the  chain  of 
branch  offices  in  the  South  and  West,  compelled  every 
office  to  report  traders  in  its  district  for  the  benefit 
of  all,  and,  by  his  unswerving  fidelity  to  principle  in 
the  Beardsley  trial,  established  the  fact  that  informa- 
tion given  to  the  Agency  in  confidence  would  be  for^ 
ever  held  inviolable. 


54 


CHAPTER  III 


The  Agency  Becomes  a  National  Institution 

1854-1859 

On  assuming  the  sole  ownership  of  The  Mercan- 
tile Agency,  Mr.  Douglass  made  Robert  Graham 
Dun  a  partner,  the  firm  style  at  New  York  becoming 
B.  Douglass  &  Co.,  while  at  Boston,  Philadelphia, 
Baltimore  and  Cincinnati  the  branches  continued 
under  the  same  names  as  before.  Five  of  the  other 
branches  were  now  trading  under  the  name  of  B. 
Douglass  &  Co.,  St.  Louis  and  Louisville  having 
changed  to  that  style  prior  to  1854.  In  an  advertis- 
ing circular  written  in  1854,  after  recounting  the  list 
of  branch  offices  already  organized,  the  author  gives 
a  most  interesting  account  of  the  activities  of  the 
Agency  at  that  date: 

In  all  these  places,  as  well  as  in  New  York,  The 
Mercantile  Agency  is  liberally  patronized  by  the  banks 
and  bankers,  as  well  as  merchants  of  every  description. 

The  troubles  of  1837  made  the  necessity  for  its 
existence  apparent.  The  requirements  of  trade,  the  gen- 
eral accuracy  of  the  information,  and  the  great  good 
which  it  was  found  to  accomplish,  gave  it  general  favor 
and  acceptance,  and,  for  the  last  seven  or  eight  years, 
the  onward  progress  of  the  Agency  has  been  very 
rapid.  It  now  employs  in  the  New  York  office  some 
sixty-five  clerks,  most  of  whom  are  constantly  engaged 
in  recording  the  information  daily  received  and  in  at- 
tending upon  the  numerous  calls  of  its  subscribers. 


55 


S  E  Y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  Y  E  Y  Y.  A  K  S  OF 

Every  merchant,  banker,  lawyer  and  trader,  great  or 
small,  is,  in  tlie  si)here  of  his  own  operations,  a  mer- 
cantile agency.  This  institution  does  on  a  large  scale 
what  individuals  have  done  on  a  small  one.  Merchants, 
by  uniting  in  its  support,  obtain  better  information,  and 
on  much  more  reasonable  terms,  than  they  could  other- 
wise procure  at  any  expense  Avhicli  could  be  afforded. 
About  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  thousand  dollars  is 
yearly  expended  in  this  business  and  the  amount  of  this 
expense  is  necessarily  increasing.  The  proprietors  have 
determined  to  be  up  to  the  times  and  to  afford  all  the 
assistance  and  encouragement  to  the  legitimate  trade 
of  the  country  which  their  means  and  extensive  ramifi- 
cations will  allow  them  to  do. 


The  first  ]ir<>a<l iraii  office  of  The  Mercantile  Agency — B.  Douglass 
Co. — (oa.s  located  on  the  first  floor  of  the  old  Trinity  Building, 
111  Broaduay,  shoicn  at  the  left,  from  ISoJ,  to  18-')7 


As  an  eYidence  of  their  determination  "to  be  up 
to  the  times,"  the  firm  proceeded  Yigorously  to  extend 
their  chain  of  offices  in  the  West  and  South.  In  1854, 
the  Yery  year  of  the  new  partnership,  a  branch  office 
was  opened  at  Chicago.  That  city  was  then  just  be- 
ginning to  assume  the  aspect  of  a  commercial  metrop- 
ohs,  though  on  a  small  scale  as  measured  by  present 

56 


The      INIercaxtile  Agency 


standards.  In  1823  the  village  consisted  of  ten  or 
twelve  houses  and  60  or  70  inhabitants.  In  1832  there 
were  five  small  stores  and  250  inhabitants.  In  1840 
it  contained  four  foreign  commission  houses,  97  retail 
stores,  11  lumber  yards,  one  furnace,  two  flour  mills, 
one  distillery,  three 
printing  offices,  one 
bindery,  two  daily  and 
two  weekly  news- 
papers. The  popula- 
tion was  4,470.  At 
that  date  the  first 
railroad  had  not  yet 
reached  what  was  des- 
tined to  become  the 
greatest  railroad  cen- 
ter in  the  world.  All 
merchandise  arrived 
and  departed  by  lake 
vessels  and  by  the 
Illinois  &  Michigan 
Canal,  which  con- 
nected the  little  lake 
port  with  the  head  of 

steamboat  navigation  on  the  Illinois  River,  through 
which,  in  turn,  it  reached  all  parts  of  the  ]Mississippi 
River  Valley.  Ten  years  later  the  population  had  in- 
creased to  29,963  (Census  of  1850),  and  by  1854  had 
quite  likely  risen  to  double  that  total,  for  then  the 

57 


Chicago  Office,  estahlisJied  i85^ 
Present  quarters,  entire  1.3th  and  part  of 
12th  floors,  Neto  York  Life  Building 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 

railroads  had  come  at  last  and  the  era  of  Chicago's 
astounding  commercial  expansion  had  dawned.  The 
early  date  at  which  this  office  was  estahlished  is  of 
interest  as  illustrating  the  keenness  with  which  the 
chiefs  of  the  Agency  foresaw  the  trend  of  commercial 
growth. 

In  1856  offices 
were  established  at 
Detroit  and  at  Rich- 
mond, Va.,  the  latter 
under  the  style  of 
Pratt  &  Co.,  as  a 
branch  of  J.  D.  Pratt 
&  Co.,  of  Baltimore. 
It  was  the  last  office  to 
be  established  under  a 
style  entirely  different 
from  that  of  the 
parent  organization. 
The  Chicago  and  De- 
troit offices  were  or- 
ganized under  the  firm 
style  of  B.  Douglass 
&Co.  In  April,  1855, 
Mr.  Douglass  bought  out  Mr.  Goodrich  at  Philadel- 
phia and  changed  the  style  there  to  B.  Douglass  &  Co. 
The  following  year  an  office  was  opened  at  Dubuque, 
Iowa — the  fourteenth  in  the  Agency  chain. 

Thus  far,  the  growth  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
had  been  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  United 


Detroit  Office,  established  1856 
The  present  quarters  occupy  3,lip  square 
feet  in  Union  Trust  Company  Building 


58 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


States.  The  year  1857  was  a  notable  one  in  the  an- 
nals of  the  organization  as  marking  its  first  extension 
into  foreign  lands,  branch  offices  being  established  at 
London,  England,  and  Montreal,  Canada.  The  Lon- 
don office  was  opened  September  1st,  under  the  style 
of  B.  Douglass  &  Co. 
One  of  the  first  steps 
taken  by  the  manager 
of  the  new  branch  to 
acquaint  the  mercan- 
tile community  with 
the  nature  and  pur- 
poses of  the  institution 
was  to  issue  a  London 
edition  of  the  circular 
quoted  on  pages  55-56, 
together  with  a  re- 
print of  the  article  in 
Hunt's  M  67' chants' 
Magazine  of  January, 
1851.  The  printing 
was  done  by  Jones  &        ^.  ,     ,  ,  ,7  ,  ,  .o-n  " 

*'  Richmond  Office,  established  18;j6 

CaUSton,    Eastcheap  present  located  in  Mutual  Building, 

close  to  the  hub  of  Richmond's  activities 

and  Puddrng  Lane, 

and  the  little  circular  is  a  beautiful  example  of  the 
printer's  art. 

There  was  a  need  for  such  literature,  for  the  mer- 
cantile agency  idea,  as  it  had  been  originated  and 
deyeloped  in  the  United  States  by  Messrs.  Tappan 
and  Douglass  and  their  associates  in  The  Mercantile 


59 


S  E  Y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


Agency,  was  then  new  to  the  United  Kingdom.  The 
London  office  was  opened  primarily  because  the  Xew 
York  office  ah'eady  had  on  its  ledgers  as  clients  the 
names  of  a  number  of  the  leading  export  houses  in  the 
United  Kingdom.  The  interests  of  these  clients  could 
be  better  served  by  an  office  in  their  own  country, 
while  such  a  branch 
enabled  the  Agency  to 
offer  the  facilities  of 
i  t  s  organization  t  o 
houses  in  the  United 
States  which  required 
the  protection  thus 
afforded  for  the  safe 
conduct  of  commercial 
transactions  across  the 
Atlantic.  This  first 
outpost  in  the 
Agency's  now  world- 
wide chain  of  offices 
OYerseas  was  original- 
ly located  in  a  small 
room  in  the  Unity 
Building,  10  Cannon 

Street,  London,  E.  C,  but  the  business  proved  so 
successful  that  six  years  later  larger  quarters  were 
secured  at  24  Basinghall  Street.  At  the  outset, 
the  London  branch  confined  its  business  to  export 
and  import  houses  trading  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, but  it  was  not  long  before  the  mercantile 


London  Office,  established  1857 
The  first  branch  of  the  Agency  abroad — 
uoif  at  Kings'  House,  King  St.,  Cheapside 


60 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

community  in  Great  Britain  began  to  perceive  the 
value  of  the  service,  and  the  office  found  itself  called 
upon  to  report  to  clients  on  British  as  well  as  Ameri- 
can traders.  At  present,  and  for  many  years  past, 
this  has  constituted  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  busi- 
ness of  the  London  branch,  necessitating  the  establish- 
ment of  suboffices  at  Glasgow,  Scotland,  in  1872, 
and,  more  recently,  at  Manchester  and  Birmingham, 
England,  and  at  Belfast,  Ireland.   It  is  an  interesting 


Montreal  Office,  established  1857 
Xoic  occupiiing  most  of  the  third  floor  of  the  east  icing  in  the 
Board  of  Trade  Building 


fact  that  "Subscriber  No.  1"  of  the  London  office,  a 
prominent  house,  has  been  continuously  on  its  books 
since  1857. 

The  first  branch  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in 
Canada  was  established  at  Montreal  the  same  year  as 
that  at  London.  Its  purpose  was  for  a  time  misunder- 
stood by  the  conservative  business  community  of  the 
colony,  which  did  not  see  that  the  institution  was 
designed  to  meet  their  own  needs.    This  made  it 

61 


S  E  A    E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  K  S  OF 


difficult  at  the  outset  to  glean  the  information  neces- 
sary for  the  compilation  of  mercantile  reports.  The 


TJir  office  of  B.  Douf/lass  cC-  Co.  at  Sllf  Broadiraii  in  isr,s 
This  teas  the  head  office  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  from  1857  to  186^ 
and  again  from  1878  until  1898 


ability  and  tact  of  the  early  managers  gradually 
overcame  this  difficulty,  however,  and  the  rapid 

62 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

growth  of  the  business  in  later  years  affords  ample 
evidence  of  the  general  confidence  and  esteem  with 
which  the  Agency  is  now  regarded  throughout  that 
country,  where  at  present  it  operates  offices  in  nearly 
every  important  mercantile  center  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific.  During  the  year  1858  the  list  of  offices 
was  further  extended  by  the  opening  of  branches 
at  Cleveland,  Ohio;  Milwaukee,  Wis.;  and  Toronto, 
Canada. 

An  interesting  contemporary  picture  of  the  ac- 
tivities of  The  Mercantile  Agency  at  this  period  of 
its  development  has  been  preserved  for  us  in  the 
pages  of  the  Bankers'  Magazine  and  Statistical  Regis- 
ter, of  New  York.  In  its  issue  for  January,  1858, 
this  periodical  devoted  several  pages  to  an  account 
of  the  system  as  it  then  existed.  The  following  ex- 
tracts from  this  description  of  the  Agency  as  it  ap- 
peared to  an  observer  fifty-eight  years  ago  are  still 
of  interest: 

THE  MERCANTILE  AGENCY  SYSTEM 

I.  ITS  FIRST  ORGANIZATION.      II.  ITS  IMMEDIATE  OBJECTS. 

III.  ITS   COLLATERAL  BENEFITS. 

The  Mercantile  Agency  is  the  name  used  by  a  firm 
having  its  headquarters  in  New  York,  and  branch  houses 
in  the  leading  cities  of  the  United  States ;  and  in  Mon- 
treal, Canada,  and  London,  England.  The  principal 
object  of  the  Agency  is  to  supply  to  annual  subscribers 
information  respecting  the  character,  capacity  and  pecu- 
niary condition  of  persons  asking  credit.  The  valuable 
services  it  has  rendered  to  the  domestic  trade  of  the 
country,  as  a  check  upon  our  credit  system,  are  acknowl- 
edged by  the  mercantile  community.  Its  history,  to- 
gether with  an  explanation  of  its  mode  of  operation, 

63 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


may  not  be  without  interest  to  the  general  reader  and 
foreign  mercliant. 

The  Agency  was  first  established  in  ISl-l,  in  the 
city  of  New  York,  by  Mr.  Lewis  Tappan,  and  was  con- 
ducted by  liim.  upon  a  comparatively  limited  scale,  until 
1846,  wlien  ^Ir.  Benjamin  Douglass  became  his  co- 
adjutor, and  assumed  the  chief  management.  From 
this  time  the  business  increased  rapidly,  and  assumed 
a  permanent  and  recognized  position  among  the  mercan- 
tile institutions  of  tlie  country.  In  1849,  Mr.  Lewis 
Tappan  disposed  of  his  entire  interest  in  the  business 
to  Mr.  Douglass  and  Mr.  Artlmr  Tappan,  wlio  formed 
a  partnersliip  to  continue  five  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time,  and  by  virtue  of  agreements  prospectively  en- 
tered into,  Mr.  Douglass  became  sole  proprietor;  and 
the  present  style  was  adopted  with  the  admission  of 
Mr.  R.  Graham  Dun. 

Our  limits  will  not  permit  us  to  trace,  step  by  step, 
the  growth  of  the  Agency,  or  to  dwell  upon  the  personal 
aspects  of  its  history.  Founded  upon  the  interests  of 
merchants,  and  conducted  from  the  beginning  by  men  of 
ability,  capacity  for  work,  high  character,  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  wants  of  mercantile  business,  its  prog- 
ress has  been  uninterrupted.  From  New  York  it  has 
extended  its  branch  and  associate  offices  to  seventeen 
other  cities,  viz.,  Philadelphia,  Boston,  Montreal,  Balti- 
more, Richmond,  Petersburg,  Charleston,  New  Or- 
leans, Pittsburgh,  Cleveland,  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  Mil- 
waukee, Dubuque,  St.  Louis,  Detroit,  and  London, 
England.  All  these  branches  are  under  the  direction 
of  the  proprietors  at  New  York,  and  are  governed  by 
uniform  rules.  A  daily  interchange  of  information 
facilitates  the  answering  of  the  inquiries  of  the  respec- 
tive subscribers  for  all  parts  of  the  country. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  gigantic  labor  of  reporting 
the  business  men  of  Canada  and  the  United  States 
could  not  be  performed  by  any  one  office,  nor  could 
the  expense  be  borne  by  the  merchants  of  any  one  city. 
B.  Douglass  &  Co.  perform  it  by  means  of  their  sys- 
tem of  branch  offices,  each  supported  by  the  subscrip- 
tions of  the  merchants,  bankers  and  manufacturers  of 
the  city  in  which  it  is  located.    The  district  allotted  to 


64 


The      Mercantile  Agenc 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


each  office  is  the  section  of  the  country  of  which  the  city 
in  M'hich  it  is  located  is  tlie  trade  center.  For  instance, 
the  Boston  office  reports  tliat  portion  of  the  New  Eng- 
land States  of  wliich  it  has  the  cliief  trade;  the  Dubuque, 
the  great  part  of  loM^a ;  the  ]\Iilwaukee,  Wisconsin;  the 
Charleston,  South  Carolina  and  Georgia ;  while  the  Oliio 
Valley  is  divided  between  the  offices  at  Pittsburgh,  Cin- 
cinnati and  Louisville. 

This  subdivision  of  labor  is  the  means  of  securing 
a  minuteness  and  accuracy  of  reports,  which,  to  any  one 
unacquainted  witli  the  machinery  of  the  Agency,  is  truly 
astonishing.  The  operations  of  a  branch  office  do  not 
embrace  a  large  extent  of  country.  They  are  usually 
limited  to  the  150  or  200  counties,  the  majority  of  whose 
traders  buy  their  goods  chiefly  at  the  city  where  it  is 
established.  In  each  of  these  counties  the  principal  of 
the  office  secures  one,  two,  three,  or  more  correspond- 
ents, the  number  varying  with  the  population  and  the 
division  of  the  local  trade  among  the  towns.  These  corre- 
spondents are  selected  for  their  integrity,  long  residence 
in  the  county,  general  acquaintance,  business  experience 
and  judgment.  Their  duties  are  to  advise  the  Agency 
promptly,  by  letter  or  telegraph,  of  every  change  af- 
fecting the  standing  or  responsibility  of  traders;  to 
notify  it  of  suits,  protests,  mortgages,  losses  by  fire,  en- 
dorsements or  otherwise;  to  answer  all  special  inquiries 
addressed  to  them  by  any  of  the  associate  offices ;  and  to 
revise  before  each  trade  season,  or  oftener  if  required, 
the  previous  reports  of  every  trader  in  the  county, 
noting  any  change  for  the  better  or  worse.  No  report 
is  considered  full  unless  it  embraces,  in  regard  to  each 
trader,  his  business,  the  length  of  time  he  has  pursued  it, 
his  success,  or  the  contrary,  his  age,  character,  habits, 
capacity,  means,  prospects,  property  out  of  business, 
real  estate,  judgments,  mortgages  or  other  liens  upon  his 
property.  The  greatest  care  is  taken  in  selecting  the 
agents,  who  furnish  the  bulk  of  the  information  to  the 
Agency.  Their  integrity  of  character,  freedom  from 
prejudice,  and  from  any  entangling  connections  with 
mercantile  men  which  might  bias  them  in  their  reports, 
their  social  position,  influence  and  opportunities  for 
knowing  thoroughly  the  men  they  are  reporting,  are  all 


66 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


taken  carefully  into  consideration^  and  the  very  great 
success  and  expansion  of  the  business  is,  we  have  little 
doubt,  to  be  attributed,  in  a  great  measure,  to  the  judg- 
ment and  careful  discrimination  which  has  been  exer- 
cised in  this  particular.  Nevertheless,  after  all  this 
care  in  the  selection  of  the  agents,  prudence  would  seem 
to  require  some  check  upon  them.  This  is  done  by  trav- 
eling agents  who  are  sent  through  the  country,  and  who 
report  the  traders  upon  their  own  resources,  and  gen- 
erally without  any  knowledge  of  what  the  local  agent 
has  previously  reported.  Their  reports  are  compared 
carefully  with  those  of  the  local  agent,  and  any  dis- 
crepancy thoroughly  investigated.  Again,  much  infor- 
mation of  a  most  valuable  character  is  derived  from 
special  correspondents,  as  bank  cashiers,  insurance 
agents,  notaries  public,  sheriffs,  and  others,  whose  offi- 
cial position  gives  them  peculiar  opportunities  of 
knowing  not  only  the  resources  and  character  of  busi- 
ness men,  but  also  the  degree  of  promptness  with  which 
they  meet  their  business  obligations.  Another  source  of 
information  is  that  afforded  by  merchants  themselves, 
who  frequently  make  "statements"  of  their  own  affairs 
from  their  books.  These  are  given  under  their  own 
signature,  with  the  avowed  purpose  of  having  them  used 
by  the  Agency  as  a  basis  for  credit.  The  leading  facts 
contained  in  such  "statements"  are,  of  course,  always 
made  a  matter  of  special  investigation.  For  instance,  a 
merchant  in  his  "statement"  says  he  owns  a  farm  or  a 
number  of  town  lots,  in  a  certain  county,  worth  a  certain 
sum.  The  records  of  the  county  are  examined  to  see  if 
any  such  property  stands  in  his  name ;  the  estimate  he 
puts  upon  it  is  compared  with  that  given  by  persons 
acquainted  with  the  value  of  property  in  that  locality; 
and,  lastly,  a  careful  examination  is  made  to  ascertain  if 
any  encumbrance  exists  against  it,  not  mentioned  in  the 
voluntary  statement  of  the  merchant.  All  the  other 
facts  in  his  statement  are  scrutinized  in  like  manner, 
and  it  is  thus  subjected  to  a  very  searching  analysis. 
Reports  obtained  with  the  care  thus  exhibited  and  from 
such  a  variety  of  sources,  must  certainly  approach  as 
near  perfection  as  is  practicable  under  any  circum- 
stances. 


67 


Se  VEX  TY  -  FIVE  YeARS  OF 


The  records  of  each  office  are  arranged  according 
to  counties.  Each  partnership  and  individual  name  is 
indexed  for  convenience  of  reference  on  inquiry  being 
made  by  subscribers.  The  reports  coming  in  daily  are 
copied  without  delay  in  the  book  for  the  county  to  M'hicii 
they  refer,  and  transmitted  by  mail  or  express  to  the 
next  or  central  office.  All  unfavorable  information  is 
promptly  copied  on  slips,  and  sent  simultaneously  to  all 
the  offices  whose  subscribers'  interests  are  probably  in- 
volved tlierein.  Serious  embarrassments,  assignments 
and  failures  are  telegraphed.  The  mass  of  information 
thus  contributed  by  the  branches  to  the  central  office 
passes  into  the  hands  of  the  chief  clerk,  is  distributed 
by  him  to  the  heads  of  departments^  by  them  in  their 
turn  parceled  out  among  the  clerks,  and  by  these  last 
recorded  and  indexed  in  the  proper  books.  Tlie  records 
of  the  New  York  office  of  The  ^Mercantile  Agency  con- 
tain the  aggregate  knowledge  of  traders  possessed  by 
the  seventeen  most  flourishing  mercantile  communities 
in  North  America.    .    .  . 

A  comparison  of  the  system  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  with  that  of  the  "Commercial  Traveler/'  which 
it  superseded,  is  much  to  the  advantage  of  the  former^ 
as  regards  the  item  of  cost  as  well  as  information. 
From  a  large  dry  goods  house  we  learn  that,  in  old  times, 
its  expenses  for  travelers  counted  by  thousands,  and 
that  it  was,  to  a  vexatious  extent,  in  the  power  of  clerks, 
who  were  anxious  to  make  sales,  and  whose  good  opinion 
was  more  often  won  by  civilities  than  by  responsibility. 
Now,  it  holds  an  efficient  check  upon  its  salesmen,  who 
travel,  not  to  choose  customers,  but  to  make  collections, 
and  obtain  orders  from  those  chosen  by  the  firm. 

We  need  not  multiply  illustrations.  The  usefulness 
of  the  Agency  is  unquestionable.  Without  it,  the  credit 
system,  in  a  country  like  ours,  with  vast  distances  be- 
tween seller  and  buyer,  would  make  mercantile  pursuits 
the  most  uncertain  of  all.  Its  principal  advantages  are 
as  follows: 

It  points  out  to  the  city  merchant  solvent,  prudent 
and  thriving  customers ;  cautions  him  against  the  doubt- 
ful ;  and  apprizes  him  promptly  of  changes  which  make 
it  proper  to  press  the  collection  of  his  claims. 


68 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 

It  makes  the  solvent  and  punctual  trader  known  in 
every  city  giving  him  credit,  and  dispenses  altogether 
with  letters  of  introduction  or  guarantees. 

It  protects  him  from  the  ruinous  competition  of  the 
inexperienced,  the  incompetent  and  the  fraudulent. 

It  prevents  delay  in  the  delivery  of  goods  ordered, 
giving  full  reports  of  the  purchaser. 

It  corrects  many  evils  incident  to  the  credit  system, 
and  tends  to  keep  commercial  business  in  the  hands  of 
men  of  integrity,  means  and  experience. 

It  tends  to  promote  a  high  standard  of  mercantile 
honor,  to  check  speculation  and  extravagance,  to  en- 
hance the  value  of  punctuality  and  good  character,  and 
to  make  it  the  interest  of  every  trader  to  be  temperate, 
industrious,  economical  and  desirous  of  an  unspotted 
reputation. 

Future  changes  in  the  credit  system  of  the  United 
States  may  introduce  new  features  into  the  Agency,  and 
modify  its  machinery ;  but  the  experience  and  thorough 
business  ability  of  the  present  proprietors  are  sufficient 
guarantee  that  all  modifications  will  be  in  accordance 
with  the  wants  of  the  mercantile  community. 

This  picture  of  the  activities  of  The  jNIercantile 
Agency  of  fifty-eight  years  ago  is  of  interest  as  show- 
ing the  care  and  thoroughness  with  which  it  collected 
the  valuable  information  it  was  designed  to  supply. 
Later  years  have  brought  many  changes  and  improve- 
ments, but  the  success  of  the  institution  is  largely  due 
to  the  work  of  its  original  founders — to  the  sound 
principles  of  credit  investigation  laid  down  by  Lewis 
Tappan,  and  to  the  genius  for  systematization  and 
organization  displayed  by  Benjamin  Douglass  in  ex- 
panding and  co-ordinating  the  work  of  the  various 
branches. 


69 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

In  1857  Tlie  ^lercantile  Agency  began  the  pub- 
lication of  detailed  statistics  regarding  mercantile 
failures  in  the  United  States  and  Canada.  It  was 
ininiediately  recognized  as  the  national  authority  on 
this  subject — a  fact  that  justifies  the  title  selected  for 
this  chapter.  As  the  first  report  issued  presented  the 
failures  for  the  year  1856,  the  returns  compiled  and 
published  by  The  ^Mercantile  Agency  now  cover  a 
period  of  six  decades,  during  two  of  w^hich  they  were 
the  only  statistics  on  the  subject. 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  after  a  lapse  of  sixty 
years  precisely  when  and  how  the  idea  of  compiling 
and  publishing  failure  statistics  for  the  country  as 
a  whole  originated.  Probably,  however,  like  most 
conceptions  of  real  and  lasting  value,  it  was  a  matter 
of  gradual  development.  At  all  events,  certain  facts 
are  matters  of  record,  and  these,  when  set  down  in 
their  chronological  order,  give  a  fairly  clear  and  com- 
plete history  of  the  inception  and  early  development 
of  this  phase  of  The  Mercantile  Agency's  work.  On 
January  17th,  1856,  the  New  York  Independent  pub- 
lished the  following  paragraphs  on  the  subject  of  credit 
in  its  column  headed  "Commercial  and  Financial": 

The  time  has  come  when  a  more  rigid  credit  system 
must  be  adopted,  not  only  in  New  York,  but  all  over 
the  country.  Probably  nine-tenths  of  the  failures  which 
have  ever  occurred  in  large  cities  can  be  directly  traced 
either  to  recklessness  or  bad  management  in  giving 
credits.  Many  a  concern  has  started  with  fair  prospects 
for  a  prosperous  career^  but^  determining  to  distinguish 
themselves  at  the  outset,  have  plunged  headlong  the  first 
year  into  a  long  credit  business  amounting  to  more  than 


70 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


twenty  times  the  capital  invested.  We  mean  literally 
what  we  say.  The  mistake  once  made  can  seldom  ever 
be  remedied.  The  concern  is  crippled^,  and  its  brilliant 
prospects  fade  away.    .    .  . 

We  commend  the  whole  subject  of  credits  to  the 
consideration  of  our  mercantile  readers,  and  urge  them 
to  take  such  action  as  will  fairly  inaugurate  a  reform^ 
indispensable  to  their  prosperity  and  healthful  in  its  in- 
fluence upon  the  country. 

Do  you  doubt  the  importance  of  this  subject.^  Then 
look  over  the  balance  sheet  just  completed,  and  see  if 
what  we  say  is  not  important.  Look  at  your  interest 
account,  and  you  will  doubtless  obtain  some  light  from 
that  quarter.  Look  over  your  bad  debts,  and  by  that 
time  you  will  probably  be  satisfied.  Probe  matters  to 
the  bottom,  and  see  if  carelessness  and  recklessness  in 
giving  credits  have  not  done  you  more  damage  than  all 
other  influences  combined.  If  you  are  convinced  of  the 
fact,  change  your  course  in  future,  or  never  open  your 
mouth  with  murmurings  if  your  career  is  speedily  run, 
and  you  fall  into  the  ranks  of  the  Broken  Merchants' 
Army. 

Nothing  was  said  in  the  passages  just  quoted 
about  inaugurating  a  new  department  in  the  journal, 
and  a  new  departure  in  the  annals  of  business,  but  the 
following  week  (January  24th,  1856)  in  the  same 
* 'Commercial  and  Financial"  section,  there  appeared 
a  brief  summary  of  a  contemporary  failure,  which  was 
followed  by  similar  items  each  week  until  the  feature 
began  to  attract  national  attention.  This  interesting 
and  valuable  information  was  obtained  from  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency,  and  was  thus  the  forerunner  of  the 
Agency's  systematic  compilation  of  failure  returns. 
In  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine  for  February,  1857 
(vol.  xxxvi,  p.  595),  appeared  a  brief  summary  of 
the  failures  for  1856,  by  States,  as  foUows: 


71 


Seventy-five        Years  of 

MERCANTILE  FAILURES  IN  1856 

The  following:  statement  of  failures  in  the  United 
States  during  the  year  1856,  emanated  from  "The  Mer- 
cantile Agency"  of  the  city  of  New  York: 

MERCANTILE  FAILURES  IX  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR  THE 
YEAR  1856. 


•§  2 

States : 

States : 

a  '■'  s 

'1% 

Z  a 

Ct-O 

•^c 

_  i.  a 
-  -  ? 

New  York  

708 

31 

119 

35 

21 

Ohio   

241 

10 

13 

Missouri   

32 

'2 

6 

Pennsylvania  . . .  . 

234 

7 

6 

Vermont   

32 

1 

16 

Massachusetts  ... 

179 

7 

6 

South  Carolina... 

31 

2 

3 

Illinois   

169 

15 

4 

Tennessee  

28 

1 

6 

Virginia   

146 

6 

31 

Louisiana   

24 

4 

5 

92 

6 

23 

New  Hampshire.. 

23 

81 

6 

14 

Rhode  Island  

22 

'3 

Maine   

68 

10 

10 

Minnesota   

21 

10 

British  Provinces.  67 

6 

18 

Alabama  

18 

2 

2 

Iowa  

57 

7 

5 

Territories  &  Cal- 

53 

14 

ifornia  

17 

3 

7 

North  Carolina . . 

53 

'5 

31 

Texas   

16 

4 

47 

I 

3 

10 

Florida   

12 
8 

Maryland  and 

Delaware  

44 

5 

8 

Kentucky   

38 

4 

Total  2,705 

The  weekly  reports  of  failures,  published  originally 
in  the  Independent,  are  made  up  at  The  Mercantile 
Agency^  and  w^e  have  no  doubt  are  correct.  The  facil- 
ities which  that  institution  has  at  command  keep  it  well 
posted.  The  failures  reported  last  year  (1856)  amount 
to  more  than  twenty-seven  hundred  in  number,  and  it 
would  not  be  extravagant  to  put  them  down  at  an 
average  of  $20,000  each,  which  would  give  an  aggregate 
of  $54,100,000.  The  probability  is  that  the  creditors 
of  these  failures  have  not  received,  on  an  average,  more 
than  25  per  cent,  of  their  claims,  which  involves  a  loss 
of  $40,000,000. 

This  is  the  first  return  of  faihires  for  the  whole 
of  the  United  States  and  Canada  ever  pubhshed,  and 
was  the  starting  point  of  the  series  of  reports  on  this 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

important  subject  that  have  since  been  compiled  and 
issued  by  The  Mercantile  Agency  without  interrup- 
tion. The  intimate  connection  between  mercantile 
failures  and  the  general  condition  of  trade  and  indus- 
try during  the  period  when  the  bankruptcies  took  place 
led  naturally,  and  al- 
most inevitably,  to  the 
pre23aration  of  a  re-  j|fffi!%i  ,.  | 


25th,  1857."  This 

table  reported  5,123  failures,  as  against  2,705  for 
the  year  1856,  and  also  gave  the  returns  for  some 
of  the  large  cities,  as  well  as  for  each  of  tlie 
States  and  Canada.    Both  the  number  of  failures 


view  of  the  business 
situation  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  statistics 
showing  the  commer- 
cial mortality.  The 
circular  of  January, 
1858,  issued  by  B. 
Douglass  &  Co.,  The 
Mercantile  Agency, 
gave  an  extensive  and 
interesting  review  of 
the  panic  of  1857,  to- 
gether with  a  table 
showing  the  "Statis- 
tics as  to  Failures 
from  December  25th, 
1856,    t  o  December 


CIci:ehin(l  Office,  cstahlishcd  1S5S 
At  present  occupying  6,000  square  feet  of 
floor  space  in  the  Centura  Building 


73 


S  i:  A'  i:  X  r  v  -  i-  i  \  i:         Y  e  a  r  s         o  f 


and  liabilities  were  given  in  eaeh  ease.  The  eir- 
eular  for  January,  18.51),  omitted  these  subdivisions, 
but  gave  comparative  figures  for  the  preceding  year. 
The  circular  issued  in  January,  IHGO,  contained  a 
veritable  broadside  of  statistics,  giving  all  of  the  sub- 
divisions of  two  years 
before  and  com])ara- 
tive  statistics  for  18.57, 
in  addition  to  those 
for  18.59.  The  annual 
circulars  for  the  next 
few  years  were  less 
elaborate,  giving  only 
the  number  of  failures 
and  amount  of  liabil- 
ities for  the  Xorthern 
States  and  Canada — 
no  figures  regarding 
the  South  being  avail- 
a  b  1  e.  Fortunately, 
the  record  by  States 
was  kept  up,  with  the 
exception  of  one  or 
two  years,  and  these 
omissions  w^ere  sup- 
plied by  the  comparative  tables  of  later  years.  The 
circular  of  January,  1863,  for  example,  gav^e  the 
returns  of  failures  by  States  for  each  year  from  18,57 
to  1862.  In  each  of  these  circulars  the  failure  statistics 
ware  supplemented  by  brief  reviews  of  business  con- 

74 


Miliruukcc  Office,  established  ISoS 
This  office  occupies  most  of  western  half 
of  the  third  floor  in  the  Wells  Buildinu 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


mv\u  III 


ditions — reviews  all  the  more  valuable  to  the  student 
of  the  mercantile  history  of  the  period  because  they 
were  contemporary  analyses  made  by  men  more  than 
ordinarily  familiar 
with    the  situation. 

About  1869  the 
annual  circulars  took 
on  a  more  uniform 
style,  the  table  being 
placed  on  the  first 
page,  and  from  one  to 
three  previous  years 
being  included  for 
purposes  of  com- 
p  a  r  i  s  o  n — the  com- 
pilers realizing  that 
statistics  covering  a 
single  year  would  be 
useless.  On  April 
23rd,  1875,  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency  began 
the  publication  o  f 
quarterly  failure  re- 
turns, prefacing  its 
table  for  the  first  three  months  of  1875  with  these 
words : 

The  very  general  interest  displayed  by  the  public 
in  the  "Statistics  of  Failures/'  wliich  we  have  hitherto 
presented  at  the  end  of  the  year  in  our  Annual  Circular, 
has  induced  us  to  devote  special  attention  to  the  compila- 


55  33  313!  n 

31  33  3]3lfj 

31  3!i!!l  11 

II  liiin  II 

II  ill! H  I! 


Tonnito  OffiC' 


ttdhlishcd  1858 


Occupying  about  4,000  square  feet  of  floor 
space  in  Dominion  Bank  Building 


75 


S  E  A'  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  Y  E  Y  EARS  OF 


tion  of  tliese  fiuiires,  and,  at  the  request  of  ])romincTit 
commercial  authorities,  we  will  liereafter  publish  the 
returns  at  the  conclusion  of  each  quarter  of  the  year. 


The  senii-aiiiiiial  returns  for  that  year  iiichided 
a  detailed  reYiew  of  the  business  outlook,  as  did  the 
report  coYering  failures  for  the  tliree-quarter  period. 
This  practice  has  since  been  continued,  and  in  1884< 
detailed  reports  regarding  business  conditions  from 
each  of  the  branch  offices  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada  were  included  with  the  circular  coYcring  fail- 
ures for  the  first  six  months  of  each  year.  On  August 
oth,  1893,  Dux^s  Reyiew  was  started,  and  these  re- 
ports of  business  conditions  Avere  made  a  weekly 
feature,  while  failures  were  reported  weekly  and 
monthly  as  well  as  by  quarters  and  annually.  In  these 
statistics  names  and  indiYidual  amounts  are  ncYcr 
giYcn. 

Through  the  leading  press  associations  these  fail- 
ure statistics  and  the  weekly  summary  of  business 
conditions  throughout  the  country,  as  reported  in 
Dux^s  Reyiew,  are  now  telegraphed  to  more  than 
2,400  daily  newspapers  for  their  Saturday  morning 
editions.  Altogether,  including  papers  supplied  di- 
rect from  the  office  of  Dux's  Reyiew,  upwards  of 
2,670  publications  in  the  United  States  and  Canada 
are  now  receiYing  the  figures  regularly.  At  times 
when  business  conditions  in  the  United  States  are 
deemed  to  be  critical,  these  rcYiews  of  the  situation 
and  failure  statistics  are  frequently  cabled  to  all  of 
the  leading  European  capitals. 

76 


CHAPTER  I\ 


The  Development  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency's  Reference  Book 

1859-1870 

Ox  IMay  1st,  1859,  Benjamin  Douglass  sold  his 
entire  interest  in  The  ^Mercantile  Agency  to  his  part- 
ner, Robert  G.  Dun,  and  retired  from  the  business  to 
the  upbuilding  and  development  of  which  he  had  de- 
voted all  of  his  energies  for  thirteen  years.  But  for 
the  work  of  JNIr.  Douglass  during  this  critical  and 
formative  period  of  its  history,  it  is  altogether  prob- 
able that  the  institution  founded  by  Lewis  Tappan  in 
1841  would  not  have  survived  the  fifties,  if,  indeed, 
it  had  lived  to  enter  that  stormy  decade.  A  credit 
reporting  agency  that  did  not  cover  the  South  as  well 
as  the  Xorth  and  West  would  have  been  of  very  lim- 
ited value  to  merchants,  for  the  South  was  then  the 
nation's  great  buying  region.  Mr.  Douglass  gave  the 
Agency  its  foremost  position  in  the  South.  He  also 
kept  it  in  the  vanguard  with  the  pioneers  who  were 
then  pushing  across  the  great  central  plain  and  out 
into  the  West.  He  expanded  The  ^lercantile  Agency 
from  an  institution  having  only  four  small  offices  on 
the  Eastern  seaboard  into  a  nation-wide  organization, 
with  a  well  developed  extension  in  Canada  and  a  suc- 

77 


Seventy-five        Years  of 

cessful  outpost  in  Europe.  OF  tlie  nineteen  of- 
liees  in  operation  in  the  year  18.59,  sixteen  were 
in  the  United  States,  two  in  Cana(hi  and  one  at 
London,  Enghuid.  In  the  five  years  from  1854  to  18.59 
alone  the  husiness  had  more  than  doubled,  w^hile  the  in- 
aun^uration  of  its  annual  compilation  of  failure  sta- 
tistics gave  the  Agency  the  prestige  of  being  a  na- 
tional authority  on  a  subject  of  vital  interest  to  the 
business  community.  More  important  still,  by  his  un- 
swerving loyalty  to  principle  in  the  trial  of  1851,  Mr. 
Douglass  had  won  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the 
country  and  established  the  fact,  once  for  all,  that 
the  Agency  could  be  im^Dlicitly  relied  upon  to  keep 
inviolate  the  source  of  information  given  to  it  in  con- 
fidence. 

Mr.  Dun,  who  now^  became  the  sole  pro2)rietor  of 
The  Mercantile  Agency,  w^as  at  that  time  not  quite 
thirty-three  years  old.  He  possessed  in  a  very  high 
degree  the  gift — much  more  valuable  than  genius — of 
being  able  to  surround  himself  with  men  of  ability. 
Instead  of  attempting,  like  his  predecessors,  to  direct 
the  policies  of  the  institution  single-handed,  he  at 
once  organized  an  executive  administration  consisting 
of  four  men — Charles  Barlow,  Robert  B.  Boyd,  Mat- 
thias B.  Smith,  and  himself.  Under  that  organization 
the  four  associates,  to  all  the  world  except  themselves, 
were  partners — each  having  all  the  powers  and  liabil- 
ities of  a  partner — but,  between  themselves,  three  of 
them  were  without  the  rights  of  partners.  Mr.  Dun 
continued  to  be  the  sole  owner  of  everything  connected 

78 


The      Mercantile      A  g  e  x  c  y 


with  the  husiness  which  could  be  the  subject  of  owner- 
ship, and  for  the  services  of  the  other  three  he  paid 


From  a  painting  by  Benjamin  Constant 


ROBERT  OR  AH  AM  DUN 
Sole  jiroprietor  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  of  R.  G.  DUN  tC-  CO. 
from  lSo9  to  1900 — a  period  of  forty-one  years 

sums  of  money  which  were  measured  by  a  percentage 
of  the  profits.   That  plan  Mr.  Dun  followed  until  his 

79 


Sea^enty-five        Years  of 


deatli.  Tlie  partners  chanpred  from  time  to  time,  but 
as  the  nature  of  their  rehition  to  liim  always  remained 
the  same,  the  business  was  protected  from  the  dis- 
ruptive effects  which  mit)'ht  follow  the  dissolution  of 
a  partnership  in  which  the  members  had  proprietary 
rig'hts. 

The  great  event  of  the  year  in  which  the  change 
in  ownership  just  described  took  place  was  the  pub- 
lication of  The  jNIercantile  Agency's  first  Reference 
Book.  This  was  issued  February  1st,  1859,  or  three 
months  before  ]Mr.  Douglass  relinquished  his  ow^ner- 
ship.  ]Mr.  Douglass  was  strongly  opposed  to  the  idea 
of  a  reference  book  as  a  key  or  indication  as  to  the 
nature  of  the  Agency's  reports  by  means  of  ratings. 
He  maintained  that  the  sole  business  of  The  Mercan- 
tile Agency  should  be  to  compile  and  issue  reports, 
and  that  a  book  of  ratings  would  only  be  misleading 
and  tend  to  create  trouble  and  dissatisfaction.  The 
fact  that  the  first  book  was  published  while  he  was 
still  proprietor,  however,  w^ould  seem  to  indicate  that 
he  had  either  changed  his  views,  or  had  agreed  to  allow 
his  successor  to  begin  the  task  soon  after  the  change 
in  ownership  was  agreed  upon,  and  long  before  it  was 
carried  into  effect. 

The  first  Reference  Book  was  a  quaint,  old-fash- 
ioned affair  compared  wdth  those  issued  at  present.  It 
was  bound  in  dark  brow^n  sheepskin  covers  (nearly 
red)  extra  strong  and  thick,  and  w^ith  a  lock,  so  that 
the  proprietor  of  the  subscribing  firm  might  retain  a 
key  and  thus  keep  its  precious  contents  from  the  pry- 

80 


The       Mercantile  Agency 

ing  eyes  of  his  subordinates  or  visitors.  The  volume 
contained  519  pages,  10%  inches  high  by  8%  wide, 


The  first  Reference  Book  issued  by  B.  Douglass  d  Co.,  The 
Mercantile  Agency,  in  1859 — showing  the  curious  lock 
to  keep  its  contents  from  prying  eyes 


with  a  maximum  of  42  names  to  a  page ;  an  index  to 
cities  and  towns  of  two  pages,  and  one  of  firm  names, 


81 


Sevexty-five        Years  of 


aiTan<>'e(l  alphabetically,  of  43  pages.  The  title-page 
read  as  follows ; 


THE 

MEECAXTILE  AGEXCY'S 


REFERENCE  BOOK, 


UNITED  STATES  .L\D  BRITISH  PROATvCES: 

CONTAINING  EATINGS 
or  iHB 

PRIXCIPAL  WHOLESALE  MERCHANTS  (TOGETHER  WITH  SOME 
RETAILERS)  AXD  MAXTEACTURERS. 

FOR     THE  YE^^lR 

1859. 


NEW  YORK: 
B.    DOUGLASS    AND  COMPANY, 
1859. 


Title-page  of  the  first  Rejercnce  Book 
An  exact  reproduction  a  little  over  one-third  actual  si::e 

Xo  less  than  four  different  ratings  for  each  firm 
were  given:  B.  Douglass  k  Co.'s  ratings  (1)  for 
Bankers  and  Buyers  of  single-name  paper;  (2)  for 

82 


314  BROADWAY. 


The      Merc  ax  tile  Agency 


Commission  ^Merchants;  and  (3)  for  Importers,  Man- 
ufacturers and  Jobbers;  and,  lastly,  a  Summary  of 
Merchants'  and  Bankers'  ratings.  The  top  of  a  typi- 
cal page  is  reproduced  herewith  showing  these  rat- 
ings, or  "markings,"  as  they  are  called  in  the  preface. 


*66  ILLINOIS. 


B.  D.  &  Co. 'a  Markings. 

NAME. 

BCSrSTESS. 

LOCAnoX. 

Ill 
=  it  ^ 

II 

fr"  - 

If 

1  Puller,  Smith  &  Bishop, 

Grocers. 

Galena. 

1  + 

2 

2 

2  Fricke,  Herman, 

Jeweller. 

do. 

3 

2] 

3 

3  Felt,  Benj.  F. 

Grocer. 

do. 

3 

2J  . 

2 

2 

4  Ferguson,  Geo., 

General  Store. 

3 

2J 

5  GraQt,  S.  S., 

Leather. 

3 

2+ 

2 

Top  of  a  page  in  the  1S59  Reference  Book,  the  last  line  referring  to 
the    tannery    conducted    hij     Ulysses    S.    Grant,  afterirard 
President  of  the  United  States,  under  the  name  of  Jiis  father 


In  the  front  of  the  volume  was  pasted  the 




No.  1.      Of  long  Ptandiajx:  good  antecedents;  business  (comparatively)  devoid  of  hazard;  ample  means  in, 

and  large  wealth  out  of  "business  ;  credii  urdimiud^ 
No.  1.  Unquestioned. 


Taking  into  view  capital ;  the  nature 
extent,  and  hazard  of  business;  busi- 
ness qualifications  ;  economy  with  past 
success.  &c. 


n.  Strong. 

2. '  Good. 
2i.  Very  fair. 

3.  Fair. 

4. 

+  (plus)  strengthens  ;  —  (minu.?)  weakens. 


EXPLANATION  OF  ABREVIATIONS  USED. 
D.  Dissolved.    F.  Failed-    A.  Assigaed-    L.  Liquidating,  g.  Suspended. 


The  reason  for  presenting  four  distinct,  and  oc- 
casionally contradictory,  ratings  is  explained  at  some 
length  in  the  preface,  as  follows: 


83 


Seventy-five        Years  of 

PREFACE 

^^'c  have  prepared  tliis  work  for  certain  classes  of 
our  employers  whose  business  interests  have  long  de- 
manded it.  The  labor  and  responsibility  connected  with 
its  faithful  and  impartial  performance  have  liitherto 
deterred  us  from  the  undertaking.  Persuaded,  liowever, 
that  aside  from  the  obligation  we  owed  our  employers, 
to  promote  and  ])rotcct  their  interests  in  tliis  our  spe- 
cialty, we  should  be  greatly  increasing  the  facilities  for 
transacting  business,  and  conferring  a  benefit  on  the 
community,  we  were  led  the  more  clieerfuUy  to  assume 
the  labor  it  involved. 

Above  the  retailer  there  are  five  classes  of  business 
men  conducting  the  commerce  of  the  world.  Profit 
determines  the  risks  taken ;  hence  the  standard  of  one  is 
not  that  of  the  other:  a  single  classification,  therefore, 
would  not  suit  the  wants  of  all.  We  have  found  three 
ratings  necessary:  one  for  Bankers,  one  for  Commission 
Merchants,  and  a  third  for  the  common  benefit  of 
Importers,  Manufacturers  and  Jobbers. 

The  Banker  loans  his  money  on  interest.  Having  no 
other  consideration,  it  should  be  a  fundamental  principle 
wuth  him,  in  all  cases  to  be  secure.  His  judgment  should 
be  rigid.  The  Commission  Merchant,  however,  has 
other  inducements  than  that  of  interest  on  liis  capital — 
he  has  two  commissions.  His  guarantee  charge  creates 
a  fund  out  of  which  to  meet  losses,  not,  however,  suf- 
ficient to  justify  much  hazard;  for  which  reason  his 
judgment  should  be  highly  conservative.  But  with  the 
Importer,  Manufacturer  and  Jobber,  under  the  stimulus 
of  good  profits,  a  larger  liberality  is  expected.  Hold- 
ing these  views,  we  have  adapted  our  markings 
accordingly. 

We  have  made  them  from  a  contemplation  of  all  the 
circumstances  pertaining  to  each  case.  They  are  based 
upon  the  historical  facts  upon  our  records,  often  running 
back  eighteen  years,  regarding  the  business  training, 
the  moral  and  business  fitness,  the  capital,  the  nature, 
extent  and  hazards  of  business,  &c. ;  we  have,  more- 
over, searched  the  records  as  to  the  condition  of  the  real 
estate  of  many  parties.  In  the  absence  of  knowledge  of 
this  kind,  there  can  be  no  accurate  marking. 


84 


The      Mercaxtile  Agency 

In  order  to  compreliend  fully  our  views  as  to  the 
comparative  merits  of  houses,  the  three  markings  should 
be  read  in  conjunction.  They  should  act  and  re-act 
upon  one  another.  To  those  who  Iiave  a  right  to  con- 
sult us  as  to  the  details  upon  which  our  ratings  are 
founded,  we  shall  be  happy  at  all  times  to  show  cause 
for  our  markings,  where  they  differ  from  the  opinion 
generally  entertained. 

B.  Douglass  &  Co. 

The  1859  Reference  Book  contained  altogether 
20,268  names,  apportioned  among  the  various  States 
and  the  Canadian  Provinces  as  follows: 

Massachusetts  2,4-75  South  Carolina  506 

Maine   201  Georgia   348 

New  Hampshire.  ..  .      38  Alabama   221 

Rhode  Island   726  Tennessee  156 

Vermont   16  Louisiana  690 

Connecticut    437  ^lichigan   200 

New  York  6.340  Illinois   375 

Ohio  1,334  Wisconsin   72 

Pennsylvania    1.550  Iowa   227 

New  Jersey   187  Minnesota    75 

Delaware    18  Nova  Scotia  168 

Maryland   840  New  Brunswick   62 

Virginia   585  Newfoundland    79 

Kentucky   336  Prince  Edward  Island  56 

^Missouri   520  Canada  East  551 

North  Carolina   40  Canada  West  839 

One  jDerfect  copy  of  the  1859  Reference  Book, 
with  all  the  "points,"  as  the  hook  collectors  say,  is 
still  in  the  possession  of  the  Agency.  It  was  originally 
issued  to  Wrigley  Sons  &  Boult,  and  has  their  name 
embossed  on  the  front  cover.  The  archives  also  con- 
tain the  copy  used  by  the  Louisville  office.  It  shows 
evidence  of  hard  use.  The  j^reface,  list  of  cities,  and 
last  page  are  gone,  but  on  a  series  of  blank  pages  inter- 


85 


S     A'  ]<:  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E         Y  ears  of 

leaved  between  those  of  the  book  itself  are  some  of  the 
oldest  reports  tliat  liave  come  down  to  us  in  tlieir 
original  form.  Human  documents,  they  are,  these 
Soutliern  pen  pictures  of  the  olden  time — not  dry- 
as-dust  records.  Here  is  one  that  must  have  been 
written  by  some  Southern  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
possibly  a  clerk  of  court  or  County  Judge.  It  is  re- 
garding a  party  in  IMonroe  County,  Georgia.  Note 
the  quaint  abbreviations  to  save  time  and  ink: 

  Groc.  &  Confect. 

Will  phps.  enlarge  his  bus.  Owns  but  little  ppy. 
Is  sol.  steady  &  attent.  to  his  bus.  Considd  hon.  & 
relia.  His  bus.  has  been  done  on  a  vy  sml  scale,  so 
much  so  as  not  to  be  kn.  outsd  of  the  village  in  wh.  he 
resides.  If  Cr.  is  given  liim  the  reliance  must  be  upon 
his  honor  to  pay — and  I  kn.  of  00  /  to  impeach  it. 

From  a  circular  bearing  the  date  of  December 
20th,  1859,  it  appears  that  the  second  volume  of  the 
Reference  Book  was  issued  in  installments  between 
January  1st  and  February  1st,  1860.  The  circular 
states : 

We  have  now  17  branch  offices,  and  when  you  con- 
sider the  great  advantage  we  possess  through  constant 
intercourse,  by  telegraph  and  otherwise,  and  that  this 
extended  information  furnished  you  is  constantly 
watched  and  revised  and  that  you  are  daily  notified  of 
all  changes  that  come  under  our  observation,  we  trust 
you  will  appreciate  both  it  and  our  efforts. 

The  first  part  of  the  volume,  embracing  all  interests 
connected  with  the  Foreign  and  Home  Commerce  and 
the  Produce  of  the  United  States  and  British  North 
America,  will  be  issued  on  the  1st  of  January,  1860. 
The  first  edition  will  be  necessarily  limited,  inasmuch  as 
the  press  will  be  employed  to  bring  out  the  other  parts 
of  the  volume  in  due  season.    If  you  desire  a  copy  of 


86 


T   H  M  E  R   C  A  N   T  I  L  E         A  G  E  N   C  Y 

this  first  edition^  by  early  application  at  tlie  office  it  can 
be  secured. 

This  part  will  be  immediately  followed  by  the  other 
interests,  classified  and  sub-divided,  and  also  the  entire 
volume,  uniting'  tlie  whole  and  embracing  the  principal 
merchants  and  corporate  and  manufacturing  companies 
in  the  United  States  and  British  North  America. 

The  preface  to  the  second  vohinie  refers  briefly 
to  the  favor  with  which  the  first  had  been  received: 

The  unexampled  appreciation  of  our  former  issue, 
together  with  the  solicitation  of  friends,  has  induced  us 
to  publish  a  new,  enlarged,  and  very  much  more  com- 
plete edition,  embracing,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Pacific  Coast,  the  entire  Union  and  British  North 
America. 

Each  specific  trade,  together  with  all  such  branches 
as  perfectly  harmonize  in  interest,  form  separate  Parts. 
These  Parts  we  offer  separately,  or  collectively,  as  may 
be  desired.  This  has  been  especially  solicited  to  enable 
the  merchant  to  possess  himself,  at  moderate  cost,  of 
that  in  which  he  has  a  direct  interest.  For  the  con- 
venience of  bankers  and  others,  we  combine  the  dif- 
ferent Parts,  forming  one  whole  volume. 

It  also  announced  one  important  change  in  the 
list  of  ratings  reported : 

In  our  last  we  were  induced  to  give  the  popular 
trade-markings.  These,  in  very  many  cases,  were  dis- 
crepant, and  many  of  our  subscribers  have  mistaken 
them  for  a  condensation  of  our  own,  thereby  creating 
confusion.  We  therefore  omit  them  in  this  issue.  We 
have,  liowever,  availed  ourselves  of  numerous  markings 
obtained  from  the  highest  authorities,  and  closely 
criticized  and  examined  every  case  which  conflicted  with 
our  own. 

In  the  second  volume  the  pubhshers  attempted 
a  most  elaborate  subdivision  of  traders  into  six  groups 
and,  as  announced  in  the  circular  quoted  above,  issued 


87 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


the  work  in  six  parts,  bound  separately,  or  in  a  general 
book  eoniprisin<j,'  all  six  bound  together.  The  arehives 
contain  copies  of  the  18()()  ])()()k  in  both  forms — even 
the  six  separate  parts  having  each  its  lock.  (Five 
of  them,  by  the  way,  have  been  locked  for  the  last  fifty- 
five  years,  and  the  keys  lost.)  The  subdivisions  intro- 
duced into  this  edition  were  as  follows : 

PART  I. — Shipping  and  Commission.  Produce  Com- 
mission, Groceries,  Drugs,  Wines  and 
Liquors,  Naval  Stores,  Flour  Mills, 
Ship  Chandlers,  Distillers,  and  all 
otlier  interests  that  iiarmonize  there- 
witli. 

PART  II.— Silk,  Cotton  and  Woolen  Goods,  Clothing, 
Carpets,  Gentlemen's  Furnisliings, 
Laces,  ]\Iillinery  Goods,  Upholstery, 
Umbrellas,  and  all  otlier  interests  that 
harmonize  therewith. 

PART  III. — Boots  and  Shoes,  Findings,  Tanners, 
Hides  and  Leather,  India  Rubber 
Goods,  Trunks,  Saddle  and  Harness 
Makers,  &c. 

PART  IV.^ — Hardware,  Founders,  Metals,  House  P\ir- 
nishing  Goods,  Builders,  Carriage, 
Cabinet  and  Piano  Forte  Makers.  Plan- 
ing and  Saw  ]\Iills,  Wooden  Ware  of  all 
Kinds,  Coal,  Lumber.  Marble,  and  all 
interests  that  harmonize  therewith. 

PART  V. — Booksellers,  Publishers  and  Stationers, 
]\Iusic  Paper  ^lanufacturers.  Paper 
Hangings  and  Printing  Ink,  Yankee 
Notions,  Toys  and  Foreign  Pancy 
Goods,  Jewelers,  Gold  and  Silver  Man- 
ufacturers, Crockery,  China,  Earthen- 
ware, Glass  Ware,  Plate  Glass,  and  all 
interests  that  harmonize  therewith. 

PART  VI. — Hats,  Caps,  Furs  and  Straw  Goods. 

88 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

Under  the  foregoing  classifications  the  book  com- 
prised 768  Images,  with  approximately  30,720  names. 
In  addition  to  these  it  contained  a  list  of  private 
bankers,  on  pages  769  to  785,  of  558  names.  This 
plan  of  subdividing  the  book  into  separate  lists  proved 
to  be  impracticable,  as  many  traders  could  not  be 
clearly  classified,  even  under  this  elaborate  scheme. 
It  was  therefore  discontinued  after  the  second  volume, 
as  the  following  extract  from  the  preface  to  the  1861 
book  shows: 

The  favor  with  which  our  Reference  Book  has  been 
received,  induces  us  to  continue  its  publication. 

The  present  edition  is  not  subdivided  into  classified 
trades  as  was  our  last ;  nor  does  it  contain  the  names  of 
that  class  of  small  traders  a  credit  to  whom  can  more 
safely  be  given  by  consulting  our  records.  We  have 
adapted  the  present  work  to  that  class  of  merchants  who 
grant  credit  as  bankers,  money-lenders,  and  wholesale 
dealers. 

The  1861  edition  was  somewhat  smaller  than  that 
for  1860,  comprising  639  pages  and  about  25,560 
names.  In  this  book  the  Key  to  Ratings  was  changed 
quite  materially,  and  as  the  gradual  development  of 
this  feature  of  the  early  Reference  Book  is  a  matter 
of  considerable  interest  to  all  grantors  of  credit,  the 
Key  is  reproduced  in  full  on  page  90. 

After  the  publication  of  the  Reference  Book  for 
1861,  just  described,  the  Civil  War  interrupted  this 
important  branch  of  The  ^lercantile  Agency's  activ- 
ities for  a  period  of  three  years.  In  1864,  probably  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  year,  the  publication  of  the  work 


89 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 


was  resumed.  Tlie  earliest  edition  bears  upon  its 
title-page  the  date  18()4-\5  and  states  that  it  was 


SSI 


Al,        Of  long  standing  ;  good  antecedents  ;  business  (comparatively)  devoid  of  bazard  ; 
ample  means  in,  and  large  wedUh  out  of  business  ;  credit  unUmited. 

1  + 
1 

1- 


Strong, 


2- 
2i 

3  + 

3 

3- 

3i. 


Good, 


Taking  into  view  capital  ;  the  na- 
ture, extent,  and  hazard  of  business  ; 
business  qualifications  ;  economy  with 
Fair,  V  T     past  success,  &c. 

Limited,  or  undesirable, 

+  (  Plus  )  strengthens  ;  —  (  Minus  )  weakens. 

EXPLAHATION  OF  ABBBEVIATIONS  USED. 
D.  Dissolved    F.  Failed.    A.  Assigned.    L.  Liquidating.    S.  Suspended 


Facsimile  of  the  Key  to  Ratings  as  it  appeared  in  the  1861 
Reference  Book.    This  Key  was  a  marked  improre- 
ment  orer  its  predecessors 

entered  for  copyright  in  the  year  1864.  The  following 
extract  from  the  preface  explains  the  discontinuance 
of  publication  caused  by  the  war  and  the  new  Key  to 
Ratings,  which  here  appears  for  the  first  time: 

The  publication  of  the  "Mercantile  Agency  Refer- 
ence Book"  was  discontinued  three  years  ago,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  unsettled  condition  of  commercial  interests 
incident  to  civil  war.  In  the  sudden  and  ever-varying 
clianges,  affecting  all  branches  of  trade,  no  "ratings" 
could  be  made  that  would  be  of  any  permanent  value. 
The  detailed  reports  upon  our  Records,  posted  from  day 

90 


The      JNIercantile  Agency 


to  day,  seemed  to  offer  the  only  reliable  aid,  and  we  pre- 
ferred to  rest  our  reputation  upon  these,  rather  than 
issue  a  Book  of  Ratings  in  which  we  ourselves  could 
have  but  little  confidence.  Latterly,  however,  business 
matters  having  assumed  a  greater  degree  of  permanence, 
or  a  more  fixed  adaptation  to  the  times,  and  our  sub- 
scribers having  urged  us  to  a  resumption  of  the  work, 
we  have  concluded  to  renew  its  publication,  confidently 
relying  upon  the  mercantile  community  for  proper  ap- 
preciation and  commensurate  support. 

The  "Key"  upon  which  the  ratings  are  made  is  en- 
tirely our  own,  and  has  valuable  original  features,  which 
we  commend  to  particular  observation.  It  not  only 
shows  tchat  the  mercantile  credit  of  the  trader  is,  but 
also  why  it  is.  In  other  words,  it  shows  how  far  the  con- 
clusions as  to  mercantile  credit  are  based  upon  the  pos- 
session of  capital,  as  well  as  how  far  personal  and  busi- 
ness qualities  have  been  considered  in  the  absence  of 
capital.  It  must  be  obvious  that  this  peculiar  adaptation 
of  the  key  affords  an  excellent  opportunity  for  nice  dis- 
crimination. It  is  only  through  the  copious  details  fur- 
nished by  our  Records  that  such  an  idea  can  be  acted 
upon. 

This  book  contained  33  pages  of  ratings  for  Xew 
York  City  and  Brooklyn,  comprising  about  8,000 
names ;  and  some  550  pages  for  the  rest  of  the  United 
States,  comprising  approximately  115,000  names,  or 
123,000  altogether.  The  hsts  for  the  Southern  States 
were  very  meagre,  that  for  Louisiana,  for  example, 
consisting  only  of  the  city  of  New  Orleans,  while 
the  list  for  Alabama  was  confined  to  the  city  of  Mo- 
bile. The  fact  that  any  lists  at  all  for  these  States 
were  included  at  this  early  date  speaks  volumes  for  the 
energy  and  enterprise  of  the  publishers.  The  Key 
alluded  to  in  the  last  paragraph  of  the  preface,  was 
as  follows: 


91 


S  E  V  E  X  r  Y  -  F  I  y  E         Y  e  a  r  s         o  y 


I 


PECUNIARY  STRENGTH 


A1  +  S1,000,000  or  over. 

Al  500,000  to  1,000,000 

1  250,000  to  500,000 
[      li  100,000  to  250,000 

2  50,000  to  100,000 
2^  25,000  to  50,000 

3  10,000  to  25,000 
8^  5,000  to  10,000 


The  first  Kei/  in  ichich  the  present  si/stem  of  "markinns''  was  adopted. 
Although  since  greatly  improved  and  extended,  this  Key  is 
the  prototype  of  all  its  successors 

In  tlie  1864  edition  the  name  of  the  puhhshers 
appears  as  R.  G.  Dux  &  Co.  for  the  first  time,  the 
style  for  1859  having  been  B.  Douglass  &  Co.  and  for 
1860  and  1861,  Dun,  Boyd  &  Co.  On  August  1st, 
1864,  the  Montreal  office  published  a  special  Refer- 
ence Book  for  the  British  Provinces  in  pocket  size, 
the  pages  being  4  inches  wide  by  6%  high.  This  book 
contained  494  pages  and  about  14,000  names,  and  was 
evidently  sold  to  subscribers  in  the  United  States 
who  desired  Canadian  ratings,  as  well  as  to  those  in 
Canada,  as  these  ratings  were  omitted  from  the  gen- 
eral reference  books  above  described.  The  Key  in 
the  Canadian  book  was  substantially  the  same  as  the 
one  printed  in  the  general  Reference  Book,  except 
that  in  the  left-hand  column  the  figure  4  was  added, 
to  indicate  pecuniary  strength  between  $2,000  and 
$5,000.  A  second  edition  of  the  Canadian  book  was 
issued  August  25th,  1865,  with  approximately  16,250 
names. 

92 


KEY. 


GENERAL  CREDIT. 

'Right-h»nd  colamn.) 


Unlimited 
High 

Good 
Fair 


Inquire  at  our  Office.^ 


The      ]M  e  r  c  a  X  t  I  l  e      A  g  e  x  c  y 

The  Reference  Book  for  January,  1866,  was  sub- 
stantially like  that  for  1865,  except  that  the  Key 
contained  a  4  in  the  left-hand  column,  as  in  the 
Canadian  books.  This  edition  contained  approxi- 
mately 16,250  names  for  Xew  York  City  and  Brook- 
lyn, and  about  135,500  for  the  rest  of  the  United 
States.  The  editions  of  1864,  1865  and  1866  had 
brown  leather  backs,  like  those  of  the  earlier  editions, 
but  green  cloth  sides  similar  to  the  ones  used  now. 

On  July  1st,  1866,  a  second  edition  of  the  Refer- 
ence Book  for  that  year  was  published,  and  the 
announcement  made  that  thereafter  the  work  would 
be  issued  semi-annually.  In  this  volume  the  Southern 
States  were  fully  reported  for  the  first  time  since  the 
war — the  earlier  volume  for  1866  containing  only  the 
principal  cities.  The  nmnber  of  names  in  this  volume 
was  approximately  200,000.  This  edition  was  very 
favorably  received  by  the  leading  Xew  York  journals, 
as  the  following  interesting  extracts  from  their  notices 
of  that  year  show : 

From  the  Xeiv  York  Express. — The  information 
which  this  work  contains  is  of  great  interest  and  value, 
and  its  reliability  thoroughly  guaranteed  by  the  fact 
that  nearly  all  our  leading  merchants  and  bankers  have 
for  years  liberally  sustained  this  Agency. 

From  the  Financial  Chronicle. — This  volume  is  a 
very  remarkable  one,  whether  regarded  in  the  light  of 
usefulness  to  the  business  community  or  of  the  labor 
and  research  of  which  it  is  the  result.  It  contains  a 
statement  of  the  capital  of  almost  every  business  man 
in  the  United  States,  with  an  indication  of  the  general 
credit  of  each  individual.  The  labor  necessary  to  obtain 
this  information  must  have  been  very  great,  since  there 


93 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


are  in  tlic  book  Two  Hundred  Thousand  names,  eacli  of 
M'hich,  of  course,  has  to  be  the  subject  of  special  investi- 
gation. Messrs.  Dun  &  Co.  have  long  been  engaged  in 
this  business  and  their  reports  have  proved  to  be  so  re- 
liable that  they  have  won  the  confidence  of  the  com- 
mercial community. 

From  the  Nexc  York  Daily  Tribune. — "The  Mercan- 
tile Agency"  is  an  institution  whicli  has  been  in  success- 
ful operation  in  this  city  during  the  last  twenty-five 
years.  .  .  .  Tlie  talents,  energy  and  enterprise  uni- 
formly displayed  in  its  various  managements,  have 
brought  Tlie  Mercantile  Agency  to  a  magnitude  and  im- 
portance that  could  scarcely  have  been  conceived  of  by 
the  ^Messrs.  Tappan,  its  original  founders.  The  "Refer- 
ence Book"  is  put  forth  as  an  important  auxiliary  to  tlie 
general  business  of  the  office.  It  is  a  brief  synopsis  of 
the  information  which  is  spread  out,  in  detail,  upon  the 
Records  of  the  Agency^  and  which,  in  many  cases,  runs 
back  through  the  entire  period  of  twenty-five  years. 
The  book  is  evidently  the  result  of  immense  labor  and 
of  a  large  outlay  of  capital.  .  .  .  As  we  turn  over 
its  pages  we  can  determine,  at  a  glance,  the  commercial 
strength  and  importance  of  each  town  and  city,  but, 
when  the  objects  of  its  publication  are  taken  into  ac- 
count, and  regarded  in  the  light  of  its  advantages  to 
the  banking,  mercantile  and  manufacturing  interests,  its 
value  becomes  incalculable,  for  it  contains  what  could 
not  be  gathered  from  any  other  source. 

P>om  the  Journal  of  Commerce. — Considering  the 
work  in  all  its  bearings,  as  a  succinct  statement  of  capi- 
tal employed  in  the  various  branches  of  trade,  and  of 
the  general  condition  of  mercantile  credit,  also  showing 
at  a  glance  the  relative  commercial  importance  of  towns 
and  cities  (thereby  affording  bankers  and  merchants 
essential  aid  in  determining  the  extent  of  their  credits), 
we  cannot  but  esteem  this  Reference  Book  as  a  business 
publication  of  the  highest  value,  and  no  doubt  it  will  be 
regarded  as  a  standard  work  by  the  mercantile  com- 
munity. 

From  the  Banker's  Magazine. — This  is  a  remarkable 
work  in  many  respects.  It  contains  tlie  names  of  nearly 
every  mercliant,  manufacturer  and  trader  in  the  United 


94< 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


States,  some  200,000  in  number,  to  which  are  attached 
figures  indicating  the  capital  and  credit  standing  of  each 
person.  The  labor  expended  in  ascertaining  this  in- 
formation must  have  been  immense.  It  has  necessitated 
the  employment  of  an  army  of  reporters,  travelers,  cor- 
respondents and  clerks,  and  is,  doubtless,  as  the  pub- 
lishers say,  the  result  of  the  closest  application  and 
observation  for  a  great  many  years.  .  .  .  The  sys- 
tem of  marking  or  rating  is  peculiar  to  the  Agency,  and 
is  manifestly  superior  to  any  other  method  yet  originated 
in  its  definiteness  and  simplicity.  .  .  .If  Messrs. 
R.  G.  Dun  &  Co.  were  not  thoroughly  satisfied  as  to  the 
general  reliability  of  their  information,  they  would 
hardly  be  bold  enough  to  issue  such  a  book  as  this,  and 
place  it  in  the  hands  of  the  entire  trade.  Indeed,  the 
Agency  is  now  almost  universally  acknowledged  essen- 
tial to  any  business  in  which  even  short  credits  are  an 
element.  We  commend  this  volume  to  our  mercantile 
and  banking  friends  in  the  city  and  country. 

Similar  comments  were  also  published  in  the 
New  York  Times  and  the  New  York  Evening  Post — 
the  entire  series  forming  a  very  interesting  and  re- 
markable group  of  contemporary  opinions  as  to  the 
merits  of  the  book  and  the  care  and  thoroughness 
with  which  it  had  been  compiled. 

In  1867,  or  soon  afterward,  the  appearance  of 
the  Reference  Book  was  considerably  changed.  The 
editions  in  the  late  sixties  were  bound  in  green  cloth 
covers,  but  by  the  early  seventies  the  publishers  had 
adopted  the  red  leather  backs  and  corners  and  the 
green  cloth  sides  that  have  been  a  feature  of  every 
subsequent  edition  and  are  now  famihar  w^ierever 
The  Mercantile  Agency's  Reference  Book  is  known. 
The  January,  1867,  issue  contained  225,000  names 
and  included  Canada,  for  the  first  time  since  the  war, 


95 


S  E  \  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  K  S  ()  ¥ 

the  Canadian  books  havinfy  previously  been  published 
in  the  small  pocket  size  adopted  in  1804.  This  edition 
also  had  a  list  of  the  national  banks  of  the  Ignited 
States  established  between  18()3  and  1866.  The  total 
number  of  ratings  in  the  July  book  was  approximately 
300,000. 

During  1868  the  growth  of  the  book  continued, 
J  anuary  l>eing  considerably  larger  than  the  previous 
July,  while  the  edition  for  July,  1868,  was  stated  in 
the  preface  to  contain  "very  nearly  Four  Hundred 
Thousand  Xames  and  Ratings,  comprising  almost 
every  person  engaged  in  Mercantile  or  INIanufactur- 
ing  Pursuits  throughout  the  Union  and  Provinces." 
In  this  issue  a  most  important  change  w^as  made  in 
the  Key  by  substituting  capital  letters  for  figures  in 
tlie  left-hand  column.  The  reason  for  the  change  is 
stated  in  the  preface  as  follows :  "We  found  not  unfre- 
quently  that  these  figures  led  to  confusion  in  the 
minds  of  Subscribers,  many  of  whom  failed  to  com- 
prehend that  the  same  character  in  different  columns, 
had  an  entirely  different  signification.  In  order, 
therefore,  to  make  our  system  of  marking  more 
definite,  we  have  substituted  letters  in  the  first  colunm, 
by  which  we  convey  Estimates  of  Capital,  retaining 
the  Figures  in  the  second  column,  by  which  we  convey 
Indications  of  Credit."  As  this  important  change 
made  the  left-hand  column  substantially  what  it 
is  to-day,  the  Key,  as  it  appears  in  the  July,  1868, 
book,  is  reprinted  herewith  in  full  just  as  it  then  ap- 
peared : 

96 


The      M  e  r  c  a  n  t  I  I-  e  Agency 


f  «jl  to  ^tft-giaml  €ohmn.  to  Pght-iand  €ehmvi. 


PECUNIARY  STRENGTH. 


GENERAL  CREDIT. 


A+  (A1+) 


Over  $1,000,000 


(Al). 
(1) 

(11; 

(2) 

(2i) 

(3) 

(30 

(4) 


Over 

-  Over 
Over 

-  Over 
Over 

-  Over 
Over 
Over 


500,000 
250,000 
100,000 
50,000 
25,000 
10,000 
5,000 
2,000 


Less  than  2,000 


Al, 


2  ] 

21  [ 


-  Unlimited. 


High. 


Good. 


Fair. 


From  1869  onward  the  number  of  ratings  in  the 
Reference  Book  increased  steadily  year  by  year,  the 
only  notable  decrease  for  many  years  being  in  1873, 
when  the  first  book  issued  did  not  appear  until  Feb- 
ruary, owing  to  a  fire  in  the  printing  plant.  How 
promptly  and  effectively  this  emergency  was  met  is 
thus  described  in  the  preface  to  that  volume: 

Within  thirty  clear  working  days  a  feat  in  typog- 
raphy has  been  performed^  which,  if  we  mistake  not,  has 
never  been  equaled  in  this  or  any  other  country.  It  has 
been  accomplished  only  by  combining  the  facilities  of 
eight  of  the  largest  printing  establishments  of  the 
country — one  in  Philadelphia,  one  in  Boston  and  six  in 
New  York,  who,  with  type  founders,  papermakers  and 
bookbinders,  have  done  their  utmost  to  aid  us  in  our 
emergency. 

The  back  of  the  title-page  contains  the  list  of 
plants  at  which  the  book  was  printed,  as  follows: 

Printed  in  part  by  J.  B.  Lippincott,  Philadelphia, 
Pa.;  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Co.,  Cambridge,  Mass.;  D. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  Pool  &  IVIcLaughlin  &  Co.,  David  H. 
Gildersleeve,  Francis  Hart  &  Co.,  Wynkoop  &  Hallen- 
beck,  S,  W.  Green,  and  Dun.  Barlow  &  Co.,  all  of 
New  York. 


97 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


In  this  edition  the  shape  of  the  hook  was  some- 
what altered,  tlie  pages  heing  made  wider,  so  as  to 
accomnuxhite  four  cohimns  of  names  instead  of  three, 
and  somewhat  longer,  with  the  result  that  a  page  of 
solid  matter  in  the  1873  hook  contained  .584  names  as 
compared  with  399  in  the  smaller  size  previously 
issued.  The  July,  1873,  hook  w^as  printed  entirely  in 
the  firm's  own  printing  plant,  and  beginning  with 
that  issue  it  was  announced  that  the  Reference  Book 
would  thereafter  be  issued  four  times  a  year — in 
January,  March,  July  and  September. 

As  it  w^ould  be  tedious  to  describe  in  detail  each 
of  the  many  Reference  Books  issued  from  the  early 
seventies  down  to  the  present  time,  the  following  table 
has  been  prepared  to  show  at  a  glance  the  steady 
progress  from  year  to  year  in  the  number  of  ratings 
printed.  For  the  sake  of  completeness  the  table 
includes  all  years  from  18.59  to  1916: 


Year  Number 

1859  20,268 

1860  31,278 

1861  25,560 

1862.  ..not  issued 
1863 . .  .not  issued 

1864  123,000 

1865  123,000 

1866  141,750 

1867  225,000 

1868  350,000 

1869  400,000 

1870  430,573 

1871  486,023 

1872  532,000 

1873  525,000 

1874  594,189 

1875  641,239 

1876  680,072 

1877  691,154 

1878  713,420 


Year 

Number 

1879, , 

737,804 

1880 

764,000 

1881 

806,000 

1882 

848,000 

1883 

890,000 

1884, , 

933,159 

1885 

982,993 

1886. . 

,  ..1,025,000 

1887. . 

,  ..1,071,055 

1888. . 

,  ..1,103,299 

1889. . 

.  ..1,135,036 

1890. . 

,  ..1,176,988 

1891. . 

,  ..1,203,516 

1892. . 

,  ..1,239,424 

1893. . 

,  ..1,294,786 

1894. . 

,  ..1,299,091 

1895. . 

,  ..1,298,169 

1896. . 

,  ..1,320,251 

1897. . 

,  ..1,248,298 

1898. . 

,  ..1,251,314 

Year  Number 

1899.  .  ..1,241,591 

1900.  .  ..1,285,816 

1901.  .  ..1,291,892 

1902.  .  ..1,309,410 

1903.  .  ..1,382,640 

1904.  .  ..1,422,048 

1905.  .  ..1,443,241 

1906.  .  ..1,483,579 

1907.  .  ..1,524,383 

1908.  .  ..1,554,431 

1909.  .  ..1,587,977 

1910.  .  ..1,632,460 

1911.  .  ..1,670,825 

1912.  .  ..1,705,952 

1913.  .  ..1,797,401 

1914.  .  ..1,816,737 

1915.  .  ..1,844,506 

1916.  ..*1,882,226 
1916.  ..tl,899,490 
*  January,    t  July. 


98 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


Among  the  more  noteworthy  changes  and 
improvements  effected  in  the  Reference  Books  since 
1874,  the  following  merit  special  mention.  In  the 
January,  1877,  book  the  Key  was  again  changed,  the 
left-hand  cokmin  being  considerably  extended,  while 
in  the  right-hand  column  the  word  "Unlimited"  was 
changed  to  "Very  High." 


EXPLANATOKY  KEY 


TO  THE 


LEJT-HAND  COLTOiN. 

ESTIMATED  PCCUNIAHY  ^TREMGTH: 

Aa  -  -  f 1,000,000  or  over. 
A+   -       -       -      750,000  or  over. 

A  -  -  -  500,000  to  $750,000 
jB+   -      -      -      300,000  to  500,000 

B  -  -  -  -  150,000  to  300,000 
O      -      -      -       75,000  to  150,000 

D  -  -  -  -  40,000  to  75,000 
B      -      -      -       20,000  to  40,000 

F  -  -      -  10,000  to  20,000 

G      -      -  5,000  to  10,000 

H  -  -  -  -  2,000  to  5,000 
K      -  •         1,000  to  2,000 

L  -  -      -      -   to  1,000 


RIGHT-HAND  COLUMN. 


GENERAL  CREDIT. 


Al 


Very  High. 


High. 


Good. 


Fair. 


The  absence  or  a  JKating  indicates  tUo?«  whose  business  and  investments  render  it  difficult  to  rate  them 
satisfactorily  to  ourselves.  We  therefore  prefer,  in  justice  to  these,  to  give  oar  detailed  report  on  record  at  ■out 
offices. 


The  present  Key  is  considerably  more  elaborate 
than  this,  containing  17  symbols,  instead  of  13,  to  indi- 
cate pecuniary  strength ;  and  48,  as  compared  with  7, 
to  indicate  general  credit.  In  its  main  principles, 
however,  it  is  the  same  as  the  one  printed  above,  so  that 
no  further  allusion  to  this  topic  will  be  necessary. 

In  the  book  for  January,  1880,  the  size  was  once 
more  increased  to  accommodate  five  columns  of  names 


99 


S   E  y  E  X   T  Y  -   ¥  I  A'  E  Y  E  A  R  S  ()  1' 

and  ratings  to  a  page.  In  this  book,  also,  estimates  of 
population  were  inserted  for  the  first  time  under  the 
name  of  the  town  Avith  an  indieation  as  to  whether  it 
was  a  banking  town  and  if  not,  the  name  of  the  most 
convenient  banking  town.  In  addition  to  41,500  post 
offices  this  book  contained  the  names  of  every  railroad 
station  throughout  the  United  States  and  Canada,  or 
65,000  j^laces  in  all,  together  with  the  delivering 
express  company  at  each  station.  In  the  March,  1886, 
book  appeared  the  first  installment  of  a  series  of  State 
maps,  the  preface  stating  that  "the  need  of  a  ready 
reference  to  the  immediate  locality  of  places  and  their 
geographical  location,  in  shipping  goods  and  in  corre- 
spondence, is  constantly  being  sought  by  merchants 
and  those  who  are  dispensing  credit."  This  valuable 
feature  has  been  continued  ever  since  both  for  the 
United  States  and  Canada.  In  March,  1885,  the 
Reference  Book  for  the  first  time  contained  symbols 
to  indicate  classifications  of  trade,  a  Key  on  the  inside 
of  the  front  cover  explaining  the  system.  This  plan 
proved  to  be  a  very  great  success  and  has  since  been  a 
feature  of  all  Reference  Books  published  by  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency. 

The  early  Canadian  Reference  Books,  published 
by  the  Montreal  and  later  by  the  Toronto  offices,  be- 
ginning in  1864,  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  first 
pocketbooks  in  the  history  of  the  Agency.  These 
have  been  continued  in  pocket  size,  ever  since,  although 
after  1867  the  Canadian  names  were  also  printed  in 
the  large  Reference  Books  as  well.   Beginning  in  the 


100 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

early  seventies,  the  first  pocketbooks  covering  por- 
tions of  the  United  States  were  issued,  and  the  series 
has  been  continually  enlarged  until,  at  present,  it 
comprises  56  books  altogether,  covering  every  State 
separately  and  also  the  cities  of  Chicago,  Boston,  St. 
Louis,  New  York  and  Philadelphia. 

When  it  is  considered  that  the  present  Reference 
Book  contains  close  to  one  million,  nine  hundred  thou- 
sand names,  as  compared  with  twenty  thousand  in  the 
edition  of  1859,  it  will  readily  be  realized  that  the  com- 
pilation, printing  and  publishing  of  so  huge  a  book 
four  times  a  year  is  a  task  of  extraordinary  magnitude 
and  complexity.  This  department  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  has  been  developed  to  a  very  high  degree  of 
efficiency.  The  Reference  Book  to-day  is  printed  with 
all  possible  despatch  and,  by  a  carefully  prepared 
system,  all  changes  occurring  throughout  the  United 
States  and  Canada  are  made  up  to  a  few  minutes 
of  the  closing  of  a  particular  State,  Territory  or  Prov- 
ince. In  a  great  many  cases,  where  changes  are  of 
special  importance,  they  are  made  while  the  other 
portions  of  the  same  State,  Territory,  or  Province 
are  being  printed.  This  necessitates  personal  and 
experienced  supervision,  but  no  task  is  deemed  too 
arduous  for  this  all-important  work.  In  less  than 
eight  hours  after  the  complete  book  has  been  printed 
several  hundred  copies  have  already  been  bound, 
boxed,  shipped  and  are  on  the  fast  express  trains  tak- 
ing them  to  the  leading  distributing  centers  through- 
out the  districts  for  which  they  are  destined. 


101 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


While  the  table  on  pcige  98  shows  the  steady 
increase  in  the  number  of  names  in  the  various 
Reference  Books  from  1859  down  to  the  present  time, 
it  really  conveys  a  very  inadequate  conception  of  the 
enormous  amount  of  labor  and  detail  involved  in  the 
preparation  and  publication  of  these  great  volumes. 
From  the  standpoint  of  increase  in  the  number  of 
ratings  alone  a  more  instructive  comparison  would  be 
by  decades,  as  follows : 

Year  Number  of  Names  Increase 

1859  20  268 

1868  350,000  Increase  over  1859  329,732 

1878  713,420         "         "    1868  363,420 

1888  1,103,299         "         "    1878  389,879 

1898  1,251,314         "         "    1888  148,015 

1908  1,554,383         "  "    1898.  ..  .303,069 

1916  (eight  years)  1,882,226  "         "    1908  327,843 

Even  this  table  does  not  adequately  represent  the 
amount  of  w^ork  accomplished,  because  the  net 
increases  do  not  indicate  how  many  names  were 
obliterated,  or  the  number  of  corrections  made  in 
ratings,  firm  styles,  or  in  the  bank  list. 

This  is  clearly  shown  in  the  following  table,  which 
gives  the  total  number  of  annual  changes  made  during 
the  last  five  calendar  years: 

1911.         1912.  1913.  1914.  191.5. 

New  names  inserted  392,293  404.857  417. 0G5  416,347  407,072 

Names  obliterated.    348.332  345,008  359,054  374,230  377,246 
Changes  in  ratings 

and  styles           381,701  396.260  434,350  449,443  441,126 

Alterations  in  bank 

list                        04,621       65,909  74,414  79,845  85,081 


Total    number  of 

Changes  1,186,947  1,212,694  1,285,483  1,319,865  1,310,525 

Average    for  each 

business  day..       3,916  3,989  4.214  4,356  4,325 

In  other  words,  while  the  net  gain  between  the 
January  Reference  Book  of  1911    and  that  for 

102 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

January,  1916 — five  years  later — was  123,578  names, 
the  total  number  of  changes  of  all  kinds  made  during 
these  years  amounted  to  6,315,514,  or  three  and  one- 
half  times  the  average  number  of  names  in  the  Refer- 
ence Book  during  this  period.  In  order  to  keep  pace 
with  the  steady  increase  in  this  immense  amount  of 
detail  work,  the  Printing  Department  has  had  to  be 
successively  enlarged  several  times,  and  particulars 
1  egarding  the  present  modern  and  up-to-date  printing 
house  and  bindery  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  will  be 
found  in  the  last  chapter  of  this  book.  The  preceding 
sketch  of  the  history  of  the  Reference  Book  has  been 
brought  down  to  date  at  this  point  as  a  matter  of  con- 
venience, thus  avoiding  the  repetition  that  would  be 
involved  in  tracing  its  progress  and  growth  from 
decade  to  decade  since  it  was  first  established  fifty- 
seven  years  ago. 

From  1859  to  1865  no  new  branch  offices  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency  were  established — the  only  period 
in  the  history  of  the  institution  when  more  than  three 
years  elapsed  without  witnessing  a  single  extension  of 
the  Agency's  chain.  The  reason  was,  of  course,  the 
Civil  War,  which  retarded  the  nation's  industrial  and 
commercial  growth  for  five  years.  In  1865  the 
styles  of  the  Baltimore  and  Richmond  offices — which 
were  originally  opened  as  J.  D.  Pratt  &  Co. — were 
changed  to  R.  G.  Dun  &  Co.,  thus  making  the 
firm  style  of  all  the  offices  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
in  the  United  States  R.  G.  Dun  &  Co.^  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Boston  district.   On  January  1st,  1866, 


103 


S  E  A    E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  ¥ 


Erastiis  Winian,  then  oeneral  iiiana<)er  in  Canada, 
was  called  to  Xew  York  and  succeeded  to  the  position 
formerly  occupied  hy  Rohert  B.  Boyd,  who  retired  in 
the  early  sixties.  AVhile  tlie  volume  of  its  business  was 
greatly  reduced  during  the  Civil  War,  prudent  man- 
agement enabled  the  Agency  to  pass  through  that 
critical  period  success- 
fully, and  now  that 
peace  w  a  s  restored 
the  expansion  of 
the  organization  was 
quickly  resumed.  In 
1866  an  office  was 
opened  at  Buffalo, 
then  a  city  of  less  than 
70,000  inhabitants. 
The  first  manager  of 
the  new  branch  asked 
for  $300  for  expenses, 
and  with  this  small 
sum  put  it  on  a  self- 
supporting  basis.  He 
made  the  trip  from 
Schenectady  to  Buf- 
falo on  foot,  carrying  a  Reference  Book  under  his 
arm  in  order  to  show  it  to  merchants  along  the  way 
— the  long  tramj)  resulting  in  quite  a  number  of 
subscribers.  In  1867,  despite  the  commercial  pros- 
tration of  the  South,  an  office  was  opened  at  IMemphis, 
Tenn.,  a  convincing  evidence  of  the  firm's  faith  in  the 

104 


Buffalo  Office,  established  1866 
The  offiee  at  present  occupies  the  entire 
(/round  floor  of  the  Dun  Buildin;/ 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


recuperative  powers  of  that  section.  Memphis  at  that 
time  was  hardly  more  than  a  fair-sized  country  town, 
and  the  territory  reported  was  largely  forest  and 
plantation  property,  with  dirt  roads,  over  which  travel 
was  necessarily  by  horseback. 

In  1868  four  new  offices  were  established — the 
largest  number  for  a  single  year  in  the  history  of  the 
Agency  down  to  that  time.  At  Portland,  Maine, 
E.  Russell  &  Co.,  of  Boston,  established  a  branch  to 

take  care  of  their  sub- 
scribers in  that  State, 
as  well  as  to  give  more 
thorough  work  in  re- 
porting. The  business 
of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  in  Canada 
was  greatly  stimu- 
lated as  a  result  of 
Confederation,  which 
took  place  in  1867, 
and  the  energy  with 
which  merchants  at  Montreal,  Toronto  and  Quebec 
extended  their  trade  into  all  parts  of  Nova  Scotia 
and  New  Brunswick — which  were  then  united  with 
the  Dominion — necessitated  a  new  office  at  Halifax, 
N.  S.,  in  1868,  while  one  was  opened  at  St.  John, 
N.  B.,  three  3^ears  later.  At  that  time  the  principles 
and  objects  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  were  little 
understood  in  the  maritime  provinces,  and  for  a  time 
there  was  some  misunderstanding  as  to  the  purposes  of 


Albdiltl  OJjirc,  (xtabli.sJted  ISiiH 

A  portion  of  the  main  office,  on  the  sixth 
floor  of  the  Hun  Building 


105 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 


the  institution.  The  Hahfax  office  lias  kept  a  scrap- 
book  from  the  date  of  its  estabhshnient  to  the 
present  time,  which  contains  many  of  the  early 
criticisms,  and  also  editorials  by  leading  jom'nals 
retracting  wliat  had  been  said  and  commending 
the  Agency  after  they  had  come  to  know  it  more 
thoroughly.  The  other  offices  opened  in  1868 
were  Toledo,  Ohio,  and  Albany,  X.  Y. 

In  April,  1869,  an 
office  was  established 
at  San  Francisco — the 
first  branch  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency 
west  of  the  Rocky 
Mountains.  The  ter- 
ritory included  in  the 
San  Francisco  district 
was  a  vast  empire,  em- 
bracing the  present 
States  of  California, 
Nevada,  Utah,  jNIon- 
tana,  Oregon  and 
Washington,  together 

with  British  Columbia.  At  the  outset,  the  recep- 
tion accorded  to  the  new  enterprise  was  discourag- 
ing. The  majority  of  the  principal  merchants  at  San 
Francisco  felt  that  the  Agency  could  be  of  little 
benefit  to  them  since  their  credit  customers  were 
made  up  chiefly  of  what  they  called  "support 
accounts."    Bv  this  thev  meant  that  their  customers 


Halifax  Office,  established  1S6S 
Where  the  firm  uoic  oeeui))/  rooms  on  the 
tJiird  floor  of  the  Roi/al  Bank  Building 


106 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

were  practically  controlled  by  them,  and  that  they 
knew  all  about  their  financial  affairs.  This  situation 
was  one  that,  with  local  modifications,  confronted  the 
managers  of  the  pioneer  offices  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  in  all  parts  of  the  West  and  Southwest.  It 
could  only  be  met  by  i^roving  to  the  satisfaction  of 

the  leaders  in  each 
community  that  the 
inf ormation  secured 
by  the  new  institution 
w^as  better  and  more 
complete  than  they 
themselves  possessed, 
even  about  their  own 
customers.  By  reason 
of  its  disinterested 
position  the  Agency 
often  ascertained  facts 
that  the  wholesale 
houses,  being  inter- 
ested parties,  never 
learned.  The  thorough 

The  present  office  is  on  the  third  floor  of  J  j.  j.' 

tJie  Insurance  Exchange  Building  aud    SystcmatlC  man- 

ner in  which  it  col- 
lected and  verified  its  data  proved  to  be  a  great 
improvement  over  the  usual  practice  of  the  banking 
and  trading  houses  of  those  days,  and  it  was  not 
long  before  influential  firms,  which  had  at  first 
held  aloof,  voluntarily  became  subscribers,  and  have 


Illllii" 


San  Fi-inirisro  Office,  e-'^tahlishcd  1S6'J 


107 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  F 

ever  since  continued  to  be  its  loyal  friends.  At  San 
Francisco,  and  at  the  various  other  pioneer  offices  in 
the  vast  re^-ion  beyond  the  ^Mississippi  now  being 
rapidly  opened  up  for  settlement,  the  Agency  won  its 
way  by  demonstrating  the  value  of  its  service,  and 
accepting  any  tests  that  those  most  familiar  with  local 
conditions  cared  to  ap- 
ply as  to  the  accuracy 
of  its  information. 
Many  of  the  minor 
offices  in  the  more 
sparsely  settled  por- 
tions of  this  region 
have  never  been  self- 
supporting,  but  have 
been  maintained  at  a 
loss  year  after  year  in 
order  to  provide  the 
mercantile  community 
at  the  larger  trad- 
ing centers  with  the 
prompt  and  reliable 
information  w^ithout 
which  credit  business 
in  those  localities  would  be  impossible. 

One  other  office  was  established  in  1869,  at  Nor- 
folk, Va.,  and  two  in  1870— at  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  and 
Hartford,  Conn.  Each  of  these  branches  gave  the 
organization  an  extension  in  territory  where  its  ser- 

108 


Rochester  Office,  csiahlished  1870 
At  present  occupijing  the  east  half  oj 
the  fifth  floor  of  the  Insurance  BuUdinu 


The      M  e  r  c  a  n  t  i  l  e  Agency 


vices  were  needed — that  at  Hartford,  for  example, 
resulting  in  the  opening  of  new  suboffices  in  quick 
succession  at  Providence,  New  Haven  and  Spring- 
field, Mass.,  early  in  the  next  decade. 

Altogether,  during  the  period  from  1859  to  1870, 
ten  new  branches  of  the  Agency  were  established — an 
excellent  showing  considering  the  profound  disturb- 
ance to  the  nation's 
mercantile  activities 
occasioned  by  the  war. 
The  most  notable 
achievement  of  these 
eleven  years,  however, 
was  the  inaugura- 
tion of  the  Reference 
Book,  which  by  the 
close  of  the  period  was 
firmly  established  as 
an  indispensable  ad- 
junct to  credit  trans- 
actions in  every  part 
of  the  United  States 
and  Canada. 
The  extension  of  the  service  of  the  Agency  to  the 
Pacific  coast  during  this  troubled  period  is  also  of  in- 
terest, especially  as  the  opening  of  the  San  Francisco 
office  preceded  the  completion  of  the  first  transconti- 
nental railway,  which  was  then  slowly  creeping  up  to 
the  summit  of  the  Rockies  from  both  sides.  By  the  close 
of  1870  The  Mercantile  Agency  had  entirely  recov- 

109 


Hartford  Office,  established  1870 
Occupi/ing  half  of  the  third  floor  of  the 
Hartford  Life  Insurance  Biiildinf/ 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

ered  from  the  retarding  influences  of  tlie  war  and  was 
ready  to  keep  pace  with  the  swift  development  of  the 
nation's  vast  natural  resources  that  followed  the  open- 
ing of  millions  of  fertile  acres  to  settlement  as  new 
railways  advanced  into  the  interior  in  every  direction. 


110 


CHAPTER  V 

The  Agency  Keeps  Pace  With  the  Nation's 

Growth 

1871-1890 

The  fourth  and  fifth  decades  in  the  history  of 
The  Mercantile  Agency  were  periods  of  unexampled 
expansion,  no  less  than  fifty  new  offices  being 
established  between  1871  and  1880,  and  forty-eight 
between  1881  and  1890.  Of  these,  ninety  were 
in  the  United  States,  four  in  Canada,  three  in 
Europe  and  one  in  Australia,  so  that  the  most 
noteworthy  feature  of  these  years  was  the  enormous 
extension  of  the  organization  within  the  United 
States.  The  opening  of  these  new  branches  came 
about  in  two  ways.  Many  of  them  were  decided  upon 
by  the  executive  administration  at  New  York  for  the 
purpose  of  carrying  the  service  of  the  Agency  into 
regions  where  it  had  previously  been  little  known. 
Others  were  started  by  the  district  managers — with 
the  consent  of  the  New  York  executives — as  sub- 
offices  to  enable  them  to  give  more  prompt  and  effi- 
cient service  in  the  territory  under  their  control.  In 
each  case  the  new  offices  were  the  Agency's  response 
to  the  fast-growing  requirements  of  the  business  com- 
munity throughout  the  United  States,  and  the  in- 
crease in  their  number  from  28  to  126  in  two  decades 


111 


S  E  A'  i:   X   T   Y   -  F  I   V  E  Y        A  K  S  C)  1' 


shows  how  closely  tlie  institution  kept  pace  with  the 
nation's  "rowth. 

Until  1870  tlie  paralyzing  influence  of  the  great 
war  was  still  felt  in  all  branches  of  the  country's  indus- 
trial and  mercantile  activities.  Kailroad  building, 
whicli  had  been  advancing  apace  during  the  fifties, 
practically  ceased  from  1861  to  1865,  and  was  resumed 
haltingly  and  slowly.  Capital  found  its  way  back  into 
the  channels  of  trade  timidly  at  first.  Then,  with  a 
sudden  wave  of  the  optimism  that  in  America  seems 
to  be  more  buoyant  and  all-pervading  than  anywhere 
else,  the  great  nation,  reunited,  started  on  its  forward 
course.  The  completion  of  the  flrst  transcontinental 
railroad  on  May  10th,  1869,  stirred  the  imagination  of 
the  whole  country  and  of  the  world.  For  twenty 
years  the  army  of  California  gold  seekers  had  gone 
around  the  stormy  Horn,  across  the  deadly  Isthmus, 
or  had  slowly  followed  the  long  and  weary  trails  across 
the  continent,  exposed  to  incessant  dangers  from 
Indians  and  to  no  small  risk  of  destruction  from 
thirst  and  starvation.  Xow  the  prairie  schooner  gave 
way  to  the  exj^ress  train,  and  the  entire  Pacific  Slope 
began  to  fill  up,  as  well  as  the  vast  region  on  both 
sides  of  the  1,800  miles  of  single-track  line  from 
Council  Bluffs  to  San  Francisco,  which  was  thus 
thrown  open  to  settlement.  Europe  began  to  send 
its  capital  to  develop  the  wealth  of  America's  vast 
western  territories,  w^hile  immigrants  by  hundreds  of 
thousands  began  to  flock  to  this  Xew  World  of  un- 
bounded opportunity. 

112 


The      M  e  k  c  a  X  t  I  l  e  Agency 


It  is  interesting  to  note  how  this  spirit  of  op- 
timism was  reflected  in  the  growth  of  The  Mercan- 
tile Agency.  In  1871  six  new  offices  were  opened 
— more  than  in  any  single  year  since  the  institution 
started.  In  1872  no  less  than  twenty  new  branches 
were  established.  Here  is  the  list  for  1871,  in  the 
order  in  which  they  are  listed  in  the  Red  Book:* 
Nashville,  Tenn. ;  St.  John,  X.  B.;  Indianapolis, 
Ind. ;  Newark,  N.  J. ; 
Portland,  Ore.,  and 
Providence,  R.  I. 
There  was  one  office 
in  the  South,  one  in 
the  British  Provinces, 
one  in  the  Central 
States,  one  in  the 
Central  Atlantic 
States,  one  o  n  the 
Pacific  Slope  and  one 
in  New  England — if 
the  managers  of  the 
Agency  had  wished 
to  demonstrate  how  skillfully  they  could  meet 
the  growing  needs  of  every  part  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada,  they  could  hardly  have  made 
a  better  distribution.  The  office  at  Nashville, 
originally  opened  from  Louisville,  is  now  the  head  of 
a  very  extensive  district  of  its  own;  the  branch  at  St. 

*The  Red  Book  is  a  publication  of  some  220  pages  for  the  use  of  branch 
managers.  It  gives  the  list  of  oflBces,  alphabetically,  chronologically,  by 
districts,  etc.,  and  the  exact  territory  assigned  to  each,  the  oflQce  responsible 
for  each  county,  etc. 

113 


Providence  Office,  established  1871 
Facing  Exchange  Place,  the  civic  cen- 
ter of  this  husg  industrial  city 


Set  e  X  t  y  -  f  I  V  e         Years  of 

John  was  opened  by  the  IVIontreal  office  as  a  result  of 
the  union  of  tlie  maritime  provinces  with  Canada;  the 
Indianapohs  office  was  at  first  in  the  Cincinnati  dis- 
trict, but  is  now  independent,  while  Newark  was 
opened  directly  from  New  York.  Providence  was  at 
first  a  suboffice  of  Hartford. 

At  Portland,  Ore.,  then  a  suboffice  in  the  San 
Francisco  district,  the  manager  had  to  face  veritable 
pioneering  conditions  in  1871.  The  city  had  a  popu- 
lation of  8,203,  and  was  the  only  place  of  importance 
in  the  entire  Pacific  Northwest.  It  therefore  enjoyed 
a  wholesale  trade  out  of  all  j^roportion  to  its  size  and 
had  many  prosperous  merchants.  The  only  railroad 
in  Oregon  at  that  time  ran  from  Portland  to  Rose- 
burg,  a  distance  of  198  miles.  In  Washington  Ter- 
ritory the  Northern  Pacific  had  built  a  line  from 
Kalama  to  Tacoma,  a  distance  of  102  miles,  with  a 
branch  from  Tenino  Junction  to  Olympia,  some  15 
miles.  There  w^as  also  a  primitive  line  from  Walla 
Walla  to  Wallula,  about  31  miles  in  length.  Every- 
where else  in  Oregon,  with  its  area  of  96,030  square 
miles,  and  in  Washington  with  69,180,  traveling  was 
by  primitive  river  boats  and  by  stage.  In  the  winter 
the  almost  bottomless  roads  rendered  progress  slow 
and  uncertain,  w^hile  in  summer  the  thick  dust  was  al- 
most equally  unpleasant.  The  pojiulation  was  sparse 
and  the  towns  few  and  far  between.  One  traveler 
covered  the  entire  district  at  first,  and  made  trips  of 
magnificent  distances.  Starting  at  Ashland,  near  the 
California  line,  he  went  by  stage  to  Roseburg,  about 

114 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


Portland,  Ore.,  Office,  established  1871 
First  opened  when  Portland  had  a  population  of  8,203. 
The  present  office  is  located  in  the  Morgan  Building 


140  miles.  Thence  the  trip  to  Portland  down  the 
Willamette  Valley  could  be  made  by  rail,  and  from 
there  to  The  Dalles,  on  the  Columbia  River,  by  steam- 
boat. From  that  point  the  trip  had  to  be  made  by 
"buckboard"  to  Canyon  City,  350  miles  in  the  in- 
terior and  most  of  the  way  out  of  sight  of  settlements. 
Then  followed  trips  by  stage,  buckboard  or  on  horse- 
back of  55,  96,  173,  292,  and  220  miles,  and  a  final 
long  river  stretch  of  356  miles  back  to  Portland,  mak- 
ing a  total  circuit  of  nearly  1,800  miles !  In  Washing- 
ton the  traveler's  task  was  nearly  as  arduous,  and  he 
also  had  to  go  across  the  Sound  to  report  British 
Columbia. 

The  number  of  offices  opened  in  1872  was  so  great 
that  individual  references  to  each  of  them  w^ould  be 
tedious.    Those  selected  for  illustration  in  this  chapter 


115 


S  i:  y  V  X  T  Y  -  F  I  \  V.  Y  k  a  r  s  o  r 
ai-e  district  offices  at  present.    The  list  follows: 


Columbus.  Oliio 
Davenport,  Iowa 
Dayton,  Ohio 
Dubuque,  Iowa 
Erie,  Pa. 
Evansville,  Ind. 
Galveston,  Texas 
Grand  Ra])ids,  Micli. 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 
^Mobile,  Ala. 


Quincy,  111. 
St.  Joseph,  ^lo. 
Seranton,  Pa. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Troy,  N.  Y. 
Utica,  N.  Y. 
Worcester,  jNIass. 
Glasgow,  Scotland. 
Paris,  France 
Hamilton,  Ont. 


T  h  e  opening  of 
the  Galveston  office 
illustrates  the  shift  in 
mercantile  conditions, 
due  to  the  rapid  ex- 
pansion of  the  coun- 
try, that  resulted  in 
the  establishment  of 
many  new  branch 
offices  during  this 
period.  As  the  rail- 
roads did  not  begin  to 
reach  into  Texas  from 
the  North  and  East 
until  after  the  close  of 
the  war,  Galveston 
was,  down  to  the 
middle  sixties,  about 
the  only  commercial  gateway  to  the  State.  Merchan- 
dise came  to  the  port  by  coasting  steamers  and  nearly 
all  business  transactions  of  anv  moment  had  their 


Denver  Office,  established  18H 
Occupying  about  half  of  the  7th  floor 
of  the  Exchanpe  BuUding 


116 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


origin  at  New  Orleans,  where  The  Mercantile  Agency 
had  maintained  an  office  since  1851.  With  the  increase 
in  population  in  the  vast  region  comprised  within 
the  boundaries  of  Texas,  independent  distributing 
houses  began  to  be  established  at  Galveston  and  com- 
mercial relations  with  New  Orleans  dwindled  rapidly. 
The  opening  of  the  Galveston  office  was,  therefore, 
a  prompt  recognition 
on  the  part  of  the 
executive  manage- 
ment of  the  altered 
mercantile  situation  in 
this  district. 

The  next  to  the 
last  office  in  the  large 
group  established  in 
1872— that  at  Paris— 
also  merits  a  brief 
w^ord  in  passing. 
Opened  almost  simul- 
taneously with  the 
suboffice  established  by  the  London  branch  at  Glas- 
gow, it  was  the  third  branch  of  The  ^Mercantile 
Agency  in  Europe.  For  twenty  years  the  office  sup- 
plied international  service  only — reporting  to  Xew 
York  and  London  regarding  the  standing  of  French 
houses,  and  to  clients  in  France  regarding  credits  in 
the  other  regions  covered  by  The  Mercantile  Agency. 
It  was  not  until  after  the  year  1900  that  the  Paris 


Glasgow  Office,  estahlished  1872 
Situated  in  Castle  Chambers, 
55  West  Regent  Street 


117 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


office  bet^an  to  assume  tlie  inii)()rtant  place  in  the 
Agency  system  that  it  holds  to-day. 

In  1873,  the  year  of  the  great  panic,  only  one 
new  office  was  established,  that  at  New  Haven,  Conn., 
which  w^as  originally  opened  as  a  suboffice  of  Hart- 
ford. During  the  next  four  years,  howxver,  the  ex- 
pansion of  the  service  was  so  rapid  that  the  list  of  the 
new  offices  can  best  be  indicated  by  a  table: 

In  1874.  In  1876. 

Atlanta,  Ga.  La  Crosse,  Wis. 

Denver,  Col.  Berlin,  Germany 

Savannah,  Ga.  London,  Ont. 

Williamsport,  Pa.  In  1877. 

In  1875.  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Glovers ville,  N.  Y.  Omaha,  Neb. 

Dallas,  Tex.  Peoria,  111. 

St.  Paul,  Minn.  Springfield,  Mass. 

Houston,  Tex.  Des  IVIoines,  lovi^a. 

Keokuk,  Iowa 
Binghamton,  N.  Y. 

The  second  office  in  the  1874  group  was  another 
pioneer  in  a  new  district.  The  following  brief  account 
of  the  conditions  under  w^hich  the  work  of  the  Agency 
was  carried  on  at  that  point  forty-two  years  ago  is  of 
interest,  because  the  conditions  described  were  in  a 
general  way  similar  to  those  encountered  at  most  of 
the  offices  established  in  the  West  and  Southwest 
during  the  period: 

Tlie  town  (Denver)  at  that  time  was  rough  and 
tough,  and  had  a  population  of  about  25,000.  It  was  a 
mining  and  cattle  center.  It  grew  rapidly,  however, 
and  our  office  with  it.  .  .  .  During  the  period  from 
1880  to  1890  the  town  experienced  a  terrific  boom  and 
the  work  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in  those  days  was 

118 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  F 

one  of  great  diffieiilty  and  responsibility.  ]\Iercliants, 
traders  and  other  ])eo])le  eame  from  all  ])arts  of  the 
country,  started  in  business,  and  immediately  sought 
credit.  Reliable  credit  information,  as  can  be  readily 
understood,  was  very  difficult  to  secure  under  the  cir- 
cumstances. 

The  same  remarks  apply  to  otlier  ])arts  of  the  ter- 
ritory wliicli  was  then,  and  is  now,  under  the  juris- 
diction of  this  office.  Prosperous  towns  like  Leadville 
and  Cripple  Creek  sprang  up  almost  over  night,  huge 
ore  bodies  were  discovered  and  immense  wealth  was 
created  in  a  few  weeks — bringing  with  it  all  its 
attending  parasites.  The  merchants  and  manufac- 
turers in  the  East,  who  made  large  fortunes  out  of 
their  Western  business,  do  not  give  The  Mercantile 
Agency  credit  for  the  wonderful  work  it  performed  in 
their  interest  in  those  da^'s,  or  realize  how  steadfastly 
and  persistently  it  separated,  in  a  credit  way,  the 
wolves  from  the  lambs,  and  the  sheep  from  the  goats. 

Men  would  walk  down  the  main  street  of  the  city 
of  Leadville  swinging  their  revolvers  by  a  chain  at- 
tached to  their  wrists,  ready  for  use  on  the  slightest 
provocation.  Shooting  scrapes  in  a  gambling  "joint" 
next  to  our  office  were  a  regular  occurrence.  During 
that  entire  period,  we  always  had  traveling  reporters 
to  cover  the  territory.  The  arduousness  of  their  work 
can  well  be  imagined.  Railroads  and  trains  were  few 
and  far  between;  most  of  the  traveling  had  to  be  done 
on  horseback  or  by  stage  through  the  ranches,  hills  and 
mining  towns  in  sparsely  settled  districts  infested  by 
desperadoes,  half-breeds,  cowpunchers  and  tough  char- 
acters of  all  kinds.  Stage  robberies  were  frequent  and 
the  rights  of  property  were  often  decided  either  by  the 
fitful  laws  of  chance,  or  by  quickness  on  the  trigger. 

In  connection  with  the  early  history  of  the  office 
at  La  Crosse,  Wis.,  a  report  of  the  estabhshment  of 
the  office,  which  appeared  in  the  Daily  Liberal  Demo- 
crat of  La  Crosse,  February  7th,  1876,  contained  the 
following  interesting  paragraph: 


120 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


This  Agency  has  always  been  active  in  initiating 
and  putting  in  improvements  whenever  and  wherever 
there  has  seemed  to  be  need  of  any.  They  have  recently 
brought  to  their  aid  the  new  invention  called  Type 
Writing  Machines^,  by  which  all  of  their  reports  are 
manifolded  and  at  once  duplicated  to  every  office  in  the 
chain — 68  in  all.  This  does  away  with  the  former  delay 
of  having  to  send  to  some  branch  office  for  the  required 
information. 

This  reference  to  the  use  of  the  typewriter  is 
especially  interesting, 
because    it  indicates 
at  what  an  early  date 

that  invention  was  in  1"^ 


constructed,  "each  a  little  better  than  its  predecessor 
though  still  lacking  the  essentials  of  a  successful 
machine."  In  1873  a  few  of  the  first  model  that 
seemed  to  be  commercially  practicable  were  made  and 


of  1866-67.  Alto- 


general  use  in  the  of- 
fices of  The  Mercan- 
tile Agency,  which 
was  the  first  great 
American  business 
house  to  give  this  de- 
vice a  practical  trial. 
The  first  experiments 
with  the  typewriter 
began  in  the  winter 


gether,  some  twenty- 
five  or  thirty  experi- 
mental machines  were 


Omaha  Office 
Established  1877 
Woodmen  of  the  World  Building 


121 


Sevexty-five        Years  of 


offered  to  the  public,  but  it  proved  to  be  very  hard  to 
interest  capital  in  the  new  invention.    In  1874<  the 
device  was  shown  to  the  Xew  York  executives  of  R. 
G.  Dux  &  Co.,  who  agreed  that  if  it  could  be  demon- 
strated that  the  machines  were  capable  of  accomplish- 
ing certain  results  the  firm  would  supply  the  means 
to  build  some  of  them 
and  would  give  the 
invention  a  thorough 
trial.   There  was  then 
no  such  thing  as  car- 
bon paper  and  the 
first   ex2)eriments  in 
manifolding  were 
made  by  using  shoe 
blacking  smeared  over 
thin   ma  nil  a  paper. 
After  several  months 
of  experimenting  the 
work  produced  by 
these  crude  methods 
was  shown  to  the  man- 
agement of  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency  and  an 
order  w^as  placed  for  100  machines  to  be  distributed 
among  the  various  offices.    This  w^as  the  first  large 
order  secured  by  the  inventors  and  their  associates, 
and  came  at  the  critical  moment  when  the  writing 
machine  was  struggling  for  general  recognition  and 

122 


^^t.  Paul  Office 
Established  1875 
Commerce  Building 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

the  enterprise  seemed  doomed  to  failm-e  from  lack 
of  public  supi3ort. 

The  machine  thus  adopted  was  a  clumsy  looking 
affair,  compared  with  the  visible  writing  machines  of 
the  present  day.  The  front,  back  and  sides  were  en- 
tirely enclosed  with  enameled  tin,  and  the  keyboard 


TJie  first  ti/peicritrr  used  in  the  tcork  of  The  Mercantile 
Afjenci/ — oftericards  known  as  '•Reminyton  Model  Xo.  1" 


had  a  hinged  cover.  While  the  machines  were  be- 
ing manufactured,  experiments  were  made  with  a 
view  to  producing  a  black  paper  that  could  be  used 
between  two  sheets  of  white  paper  that  would  leave 


123 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


124 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

an  impression  on  the  white  paper  when  struck  by  a 
type.  Success  attended  these  efforts  and  a  firm  in 
Philadelphia  began  to  supply  carbon  paper,  or  "black 
impression  paper,"  as  it  was  at  first  called,  in  sufficient 
quantities  to  meet  the  requirements  of  the  Agency. 
Several  months  were  necessary  in  order  to  complete 
the  machines,  and  it  was  1875  before  everything  was 
ready  for  the  test  of  actual  use  in  the  every-day 
work  of  the  organization.  There  are  a  number  of 
the  employees  in  some  of  the  older  offices  who  can  still 
recall  the  advent  of  the  "new-fangled  contraption" 
for  doing  away  with  handwriting  and  the  laborious 
copying  of  reports.  Naturally  the  best  penmen  were 
strongly  opposed  to  the  machine  at  first  and  some  of 
them  reported  that  it  was  "no  good."  Gradually,  how- 
ever (and  largely  as  a  result  of  the  practical  tests 
applied  in  the  work  of  the  Agency),  the  early  imper- 
fections and  crudities  of  the  original  machine  were 
eliminated  and  the  operators  became  more  proficient. 

It  is  possible,  by  referring  to  the  early  archives  of 
The  Mercantile  Agency,  to  fix  with  considerable 
definiteness  the  date  when  the  typewriter  was  adopted 
for  general  use  throughout  all  the  branch  offices  of 
the  institution.  On  November  23rd,  1875,  the  firm 
sent  out  a  circular  to  all  its  branch  managers,  giving 
them  final  instructions  as  to  "Duplication  by  Mani- 
folding." This  was  accompanied  by  a  book  of  153 
pages  containing  21  pages  of  Rules  and  Instructions 
relative  to  the  use  of  the  typewriter  in  manifolding 
tissue  copies  of  all  reports.   The  remaining  pages  con- 


125 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

tained  the  distribution  tables  for  each  of  the  65  offices 
in  existence  at  that  time.  This  was  the  first  edition  of 
the  "Distribution  Tables,"  a  feature  of  the  Agency 
system  that  has  been  continued  ever  since.  The  first 
and  second  editions,  the  latter  issued  in  1877,  were 
bound  in  green  covers,  but  for  many  years  past  the 
book  has  been  bound  in  blue  covers,  and  is  now  gener- 
ally known  as  the  Blue  Book.  The  following  extract 
from  the  1875  edition  explains  the  purpose  of  the 
new  system: 

The  "Original"  copy  of  a  report  has  hitherto  served 
a  very  important  purpose,  for,  after  liaving  been  copied 
in  the  office  of  origin,  it  has  been  sent  to  the  nearest 
office  demanding  the  information,  and,  after  copying, 
by  them  transmitted  to  others,  and  so  on,  to  wliatever 
office  required  to  copy  the  territory  from  wliich  the 
report  originated.  But  it  has  been  found  tliat  from 
the  multiplication  of  offices  which  the  last  few  years 
has  witnessed,  and  also  from  the  changes  which  new 
railroads  and  the  creation  of  new  markets  have  made, 
that  this  mode  of  depending  upon  the  original  docu- 
ment to  supply  all  the  demands  for  information  from 
it,  is  utterly  inadequate.  Hence  a  necessity  has  arisen 
for  some  mode  by  which  a  report  originating  in  one  office 
should  be  simultaneously  and  promptly  distributed  to  all 
Branches  that  need  the  information.  .  .  . 

One  of  the  objects  sought  by  duplication  is  to 
enable  .  .  .all  the  offices  to  make,  by  aid  of  tlie  type- 
writer and  manifold  paper,  as  man}^  copies  of  every 
report  as  will  be  required  by  the  various  offices  interested 
therein,  and  transmitting  the  same  simultaneously  to 
them. 

Another  object  of  the  new  plan  was  to  do  away 
entirely  with  the  copying  in  longhand  of  the  enor- 
mous number  of  reports  required  by  other  offices,  as 
it  was  proposed  that  thereafter  "the  copies  of  reports 


126 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


Set  e  X  t  y  -five         Years  of 

shall  reach  offices  that  need  them  in  such  shape  that 
they  can  he  pasted  in  Binders  or  Scrap-hooks  s])ecially 
prepared  for  the  purpose,  so  that  the  reports  may 
be  not  only  safely  preserved,  but  be  made  readily  ac- 
cessible." This  system  of  duplication  by  manifold- 
ing was  gradually  extended  to  all  the  offices  in  the 
Agency's  chain  and  there  can  be  very  little  doubt  that 


A  portion  of  the  Winnipeg  office  in  the  Keewayden  Building. 
This  branch  was  opened  in  1882 


The  Mercantile  Agency  was  the  largest  individual 
user  of  typewriters  at  that  date. 

Prior  to  the  introduction  of  the  typewriter  the 
records  of  every  office  were  kept  in  substantially  the 
same  way  as  those  of  Lewis  Tappan  &  Co.  in  1841 — 
in  huge  ledgers,  each  item  being  copied  in  longhand. 
The  handwriting  in  these  old  records  was  almost  uni- 


128 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

formly  excellent,  and  in  many  cases  even  beautiful, 
but  the  system  was  cumbersome  and  laborious.  When- 
ever an  office  was  burned,  or  a  new  office  opened,  many 
thousands  of  these  records  had  to  be  copied  from 
the  books  of  other  offices  into  a  new  set  of  ledgers. 
As  the  number  of  records  increased  the  task  of  in- 
dexing this  vast  amount  of  information  became  a 
well-nigh  colossal  one,  for  frequently  the  records  of  a 


I. 

Half  of  the  main  room  of  the  St.  Paul  Office, 
which  occupies  4,000  square  feet  altogether 


single  concern  might  be  entered  in  a  dozen  different 
volumes.  From  constant  handling,  moreover,  the 
ledgers  soon  became  dilapidated  and  in  time  had  to 
be  re-copied.  There  are  volumes  in  the  possession  of 
the  head  office  at  New  York  in  which  records  dated 
1846  are  written  on  the  same  page  with  others 
as  late  as  1870.  It  was  the  universal  practice  in  the 
early  days  to  invite  subscribers  to  call  at  the  offices 


129 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


and  liave  reports  in  which  they  were  interested  read  to 
tlieni.  In  Xew  York  it  was  the  custom  of  lar^^e  nier- 
chants,  Hke  A.  T.  Stewart  &  Co.,  to  have  a  trusted 
clerk  from  the  credit  department  at  the  office  of  the 
Agency  all  day  long,  while  many  concerns  had  clerks 
who  spent  half  their  time  there.  The  adoption  of  the 
typewriter  enabled  the  Agency  to  save  to  its  sub- 
scribers the  entire  time  of  these  clerks — in  many  in- 
stances amounting  to  hundreds  or  even  thousands  of 
dollars  annually. 

The  adoption  of  the  typewriter  not  only  did  away 
with  all  the  copying  of  records  by  hand — thus  doing 
away  with  the  ledgers  above  described — but  enabled 
the  managers  of  the  Agency  to  work  out  a  new  system 
for  handling  and  filing  reports.  During  the  forty 
years  that  have  elapsed  since  typewriting  took  the 
place  of  hand\^Titing  in  the  copying  of  the  Agency's 
I'ecords  many  important  improvements  have  been  ef- 
fected in  the  system  first  adopted,  as  explained  in  the 
1875  edition  of  the  Blue  Book.  It  wmild  be  tedious 
to  describe  these  changes  in  detail,  but  the  following 
brief  summary  gives  the  essential  facts  regarding  the 
system  in  operation  in  all  offices  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  throughout  the  world.  One  copy  of  every 
original  report  made  in  any  office  is  sent  to  New  York, 
and  in  the  case  of  suboffices  an  additional  copy  is  sent 
to  the  district  office  in  cliarge.  After  these  copies, 
or  "tissues,"  as  they  are  called,  are  received  by  the 
office  where  they  are  to  be  kept  on  file,  they  are  pasted 
on  heavy  sheets  of  manila  paper,  each  sheet  having 


130 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


pasted  upon  it  all  the  reports  relating  to  a  single  firm. 
After  the  tissues  fill  both  sides  of  the  sheet  others  are 
added  by  means  of  linen  hinges,  so  that  in  the  case  of 
a  concern  regarding  which  the  records  go  back  for 
many  years  the  Agency  may  have  scores  of  reports 
on  file,  all  of  which  are  kept  together  in  the  manner 
described,  so  that  no  reference  to  another  set  of  sheets 
is  necessary.  The 
sheets  are  cut  to  a  uni- 
form size  and  put  in 
binders,  or  compart- 
ments. As  this  sys- 
tem was  inaugurated, 
and  carried  to  a  very 
high  degree  of  per- 
fection, long  before 
modern  office  and  fil- 
ing appliances  were 
thought  of,  the  cases 
in  which  the  binders 
are  kept  are  not  the 
same  in  all  the  offices 
—  although  the  gen- 
eral system  of  filing  is  identical.  A  number  of 
the  illustrations  in  this  book  show  portions  of  the 
filing  cabinets  in  use  in  various  offices.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  convey  an  adequate  conception  of  the  enor- 
mous volume  of  mechanical  work  involved  in  copy- 
ing, pasting  and  filing  typewritten  reports,  and  in 
making  and  delivering  copies  for  subscribers  and 


Jersey  Citii  Office 
Established  1882 
Commercial  Trust  Building 


131 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  y  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


other  offices.  Without  the  aid  of  the  typewriter  and 
the  manifolding  system  it  would  he  impossihle  for  the 
Agency  to  keep  ahreast  of  the  huge  requirements  of 
modern  commerce,  especially  in  the  United  States. 

The  next  office  estahlished  after  that  at  La 
Crosse  was  located  in  Germany,  and  was  opened  in 
response  to  the  demand  for  a  hranch  of  The  INIercan- 
tile  Agency  in  that  country,  owing  to  the  rapid  devel- 
opment of  German  commerce  and  industry  after  the 
conclusion  of  the  war 
of  1870-71.  This 
branch  was  first  situ- 
ated at  Leipzig,  the 
seat  of  the  German 
fur  trade  and  the  prin- 
cipal commercial  cen- 
ter of  the  Kingdom  of 
Saxony.  A  few  years 
later  it  was  trans- 
ferred to  Berlin  in 
consequence  of  the 

rapid  growth  of  that  city  after  it  became  the  capital  of 
the  Empire.  For  a  time  the  Berlin  office  confined 
itself  chiefly  to  furnishing  German  subscribers  with 
information  regarding  the  standing  of  American 
firms,  and  supplying  the  other  offices  of  the  Agency 
chain  with  similar  information  for  their  subscribers 
regarding  traders  in  Germany. 

In  1878  only  one  new  office  was  established,  at 
Saginaw,  Mich.  At  that  time  Saginaw  was  important 


Little  Rock  Office 
Established  1879 
Bonk  of  Commerce  Building 


132 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


chiefly  on  account  of  its  shipments  of  lumber  and  salt, 
the  city  being  the  center  of  the  lumber  industry  of  the 
State.  The  principal  receipts  from  other  points  were 
sugar,  coal  and  farm  products.  Curiously  enough, 
the  lumber  industry  is  now  a  thing  of  the  past,  and  the 
city's  principal  shipments  are  sugar,  coal  and  farm 
products.  In  1879  four  new  branches  were  opened — 
Allentown,  Pa.;  Bangor,  Me.;  Elmira,  N.  Y.,  and 
Little  Rock,  Ark.  Among  the  correspondents  of  the 
Bangor  office  is  an 
attorney  whose  father 
began  to  supply  infor- 
mation to  the  Agency 
in  his  town  in  1848  or 
1849  and  continued  to 
act  as  correspondent 
there  until  his  death, 
when  he  was  suc- 
ceeded by  his  son,  who 
still  acts  in  this  ca- 
pacity. 

In  July,  1880,  Charles  Barlow,  who  had  been  a 
partner  in  the  firm  since  1859,  died  suddenly  at  his 
home  at  Long  Branch,  N.  J.  Mr.  Barlow  was  born 
at  Dudley,  in  Yorkshire,  England,  and  entered  the 
service  of  Lewis  Tappan  &  Co.  in  1844.  Although 
only  fifty-five  years  of  age  at  the  time  of  his  death  he 
had  been  in  the  employ  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
thirty-six  years.  According  to  one  of  the  obituary  ac- 
counts of  his  career,  "he  was  a  man  ardently  devoted 


Jacksonville  Office 
Established  1890 
Realty  Building 


133 


Seventy-five 


Years 


o  F 


to  business,  and  was  distin<>'uishe(l  by  a  coolness  and 
accuracy  of  judgment  whicli  made  him  a  source  of 
great  strengtli  to  his  house.  He  was  conservative  in 
his  tendencies,  but  safe  and  sure."  In  the  letter  an- 
nouncing his  death  the  firm  wrote:  "  His  long  years 
of  devotedness  to  the  best  interests  of  the  business, 
his  sterling  integrity  and  his  remarkable  capacity  are 
now  only  recalled  to  mark  how  great  has  been  our 
loss."  The  firm  style  of  the  New  York  office  had 
been  Dun,  Barlow  &  Co.  for  many  years,  but  after  Mr. 
Barlow's  death  it  w^as  changed  to  R.  G.  Dux  &  Co., 
like  the  other  offices  in  the  United  States  and  Europe. 
On  January  1st,  1881,  Robert  Dun  Douglass  and  A. 
J.  King  were  admitted  to  partnership  with  Mr.  Dun, 
and  at  the  close  of  the  following  year.  Matthias  B. 
Smith  retired. 

In  the  year  1880  no  new  branch  offices  were 
opened,  but  in  the  decade  from  1881  to  1890  the  num- 
ber of  offices  established  was  forty-eight,  as  follows: 


1881 


1883 


Salt  Lake,  Utah 
Montgomery,  Ala. 
San  Antonio,  Tex 


Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa 
Sioux  City,  Iowa 


Lincoln,  Neb. 
Rockford,  111. 
Springfield,  O. 
Chattanooga,  Tenn. 
Austin,  Tex. 


1882 


1881 


Winnipeg,  Man. 
Fort  Worth,  Tex. 
Reading,  Pa. 
Waco,  Tex. 
Jersey  City,  N.  J. 


Knoxville,  Tenn. 
Ottumwa,  Iowa 
Duluth,  Minn. 


1885 

Birmingham,  Ala. 


134 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


Wichita,  Kan. 
Springfield.  Mo, 
Helena,  Mont. 
Slierman,  Tex. 


Atchison,  Kan. 
Wlieeling,  W.  Va. 


188() 


Cairo,  111. 
Tacoma,  Wasli. 
Seattle,  Wasli. 
Spokane,  Wash. 
Wilmington,  N.  C. 
El  Paso,  Tex. 


1889 


Macon,  Ga. 
Los  Angeles,  Cal. 
Sedalia,  Mo. 
Melbourne,  Australia 
1888 


1887 


Wilmington,  Del. 
Bridgeport,  Conn. 
Paducah,  Ky. 
Columbus,  Ga. 


1890 


Shreveport,  La. 
Pueblo,  Col. 
Topeka,  Kan. 
Fort  Smith,  Ark. 


Jacksonville,  Fla. 
Fort  Wayne,  Ind. 
Lynchburg,  Va. 
Augusta,  Ga. 
Washington,  D.  C. 


In  many  of  these  offices  The  Mercantile  Agency, 
following  the  traditions  of  its  earlier  years,  was 
with  the  vanguard  of  the  pioneers  who  were  then 
developing  the  vast  resources  of  the  AVest  and  South- 
west in  the  United  States  and  of  Western  Canada. 
In  Texas  the  managers  of  the  new  offices  frequently 
went  out  on  the  construction  trains,  arriving  at  their 
posts  when  the  railroad  did.  Reporting  these  districts 
involved  the  same  long  journeys  by  river,  rail,  stage- 
coach and  on  horseback  that  characterized  the  work 
in  the  Far  West.  In  Western  Canada  conditions 
were  the  same.  When  the  Winnipeg  office  was  opened 
in  1882,  the  manager,  to  reach  his  post,  had  to  go  by 
steamer  to  Duluth,  then  by  rail  as  far  as  Glyndon, 
Minn.  From  that  point  he  took  a  small  steamer  down 
the  Red  Deer  River — "the  crookedest  of  all  rivers" — 
to  Grand  Forks,  Dakota.   The  steamboat  was  loaded 


136 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


with  steel  rails  for  the  Canadian  Pacific  Railway 
which  was  then  being  built.  Settlers  were  pouring  in 
from  all  over  the  world  and  new  places  were  springing 
up  in  all  directions.  In  the  Winnipeg  district,  in  Tex- 
as, and  at  the  other  outposts  of  the  Agency  during  that 
period,  one  of  the  most  difficult  tasks  was  to  report 
the  mushroom  cities 

that  continually  J 
sprang  up  "at  the  end  J 
of  the  track,"  as  the 
new  railways  ad- 
vanced across  the 
prairies.  Each  of 
these  had  a  very  con- 
siderable percentage 
of  traders  who  sought 
credit,  opened  their 
stores  —  sometimes 
quite  pretentious  ones 
— and  then  suddenly 
disappeared,  leaving  a 
few  empty  boxes  and 
barrels  and  a  multi- 
tude of  unpaid  bills 
behind  them. 

The  opening  of  the  office  at  Melbourne,  Aus- 
traha,  in  1887  merits  a  brief  reference,  as  this  was 
the  first  branch  of  the  Agency  to  be  estabhshed  outside 
of  North  America  and  Europe.  The  office  was  opened 
by  the  manager  at  London,  England,  who  made  a 

137 


r 

1 
i 

III 

liiii 

ml 

fill 

1 

iik 

i 

...  1 

1 

ip 

'  III 

Hi 

11 


I 


if 


Washington,  D.  C,  Office 
Estahlished  1890 
National  Metropolitan  Bank  Building 


S  E  y  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

special  trip  to  Australia  for  the  purpose.  Resident 
af^ents  were  appointed  at  the  husiness  centers  of 
Western  Australia,  South  Australia,  Xew  South 
Wales,  Queensland  and  Xew  Zealand.  All  of  these 
districts  are  now  covered  hy  separate  offices. 

During  tlie  two  decades  the  history  of  which  has 
been  briefly  chronicled  in  this  chapter  the  number  of 
offices  in  The  IVIercantile  Agency's  chain  increased 
from  28  to  126,  a  gain  of  exactly  350  per  cent. 
In  the  United  States  and  Canada  the  Agency's  ser- 
vice was  extended  into  practically  every  region  then 
inhabited,  while  abroad  the  service  was  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  new  offices  in  Europe  and  the  out- 
post in  Australia.  By  1890  the  domestic  field  had  been 
so  thoroughly  covered  that  the  need  of  additional  of- 
fices was  only  felt  occasionally  in  districts  where  the 
population  and  volume  of  mercantile  transactions 
were  increasing  with  the  greatest  rapidity.  It  was  to 
the  foreign  field  that  The  Mercantile  Agency  now  had 
to  turn  to  find  the  greatest  opportunities  for  expan- 
sion and  the  further  enlargement  of  its  usefulness. 


138 


CHAPTER  VI 


The  Agency  Expands  Into  a  World-Wide 
Organization 

1891-1916 

DuRiXG  the  first  half  century  of  its  existence  the 
growth  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  was  confined 
largely  to  the  United  States  and  Canada,  only  five  of 
its  126  offices  having  been  established  elsewhere — four 
in  Europe  and  one  in  Australia.  During  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century,  and  particularly  during  the  last 
fifteen  years,  the  history  of  the  Agency  has  been  a 
record  of  expansion  in  Europe,  Africa,  Australasia 
and  Latin  America  that  has  placed  it  in  the  first  rank 
among  international  organizations  and  carried  the 
system  inaugurated  by  Lewis  Tappan  into  every  cor- 
ner of  the  globe.  Out  of  the  total  of  115  new  offices 
established  during  this  period  no  less  than  83  were 
located  outside  of  the  United  States,  and  of  these  77 
were  opened  since  1900. 

In  1891  and  1892  six  new  offices  were  established, 
as  follows:  Vancouver  and  Winston-Salem  in  1891; 
and  Trenton,  Quebec,  Ottawa  and  Wilkes-Barre  in 
1892.  In  1893  new  offices  were  opened  at  Zanes- 
ville,  Ohio,  and  Charleston,  W.  Va.  In  February  of 
the  same  year  the  list  of  Mr.  Dun's  partners  was  re- 
duced to  two — Arthur  J.  King  and  Robert  Dun 


139 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

Douglass.  Six  months  later  ]Mr.  Dun  established, 
under  the  management  and  personal  supervision  of 
Mr.  Douglass,  Dux's  Review,  a  journal  of  finance 
and  trade  that  has  since  been  published  every  Satur- 
day, and  is  generally  recognized  as  the  national  au- 
thority on  business  conditions.  The  first  number 
was  issued  August  5th,  1893,  and  the  periodical  at 
once  became  the  medium  for  the  publication  of  the 
failure  returns  sent  in  by  all  offices  in  the  United 
States  and  Canada.  Another  feature,  which  was  like- 
wise an  outgrowth  of  the  trade  circulars  that  had  been 
published  by  the  firm  for  many  years,  was  the  weekly 
summary  of  business  conditions,  based  upon  reports 
received  from  all  the  Agency  managers  throughout 
the  United  States  and  Canada.  The  Review  at 
present  also  publishes  a  weekly  and  monthly  compila- 
tion of  bank  exchanges,  a  monthly  record  of  build- 
ing permits,  and  an  Index  Xumber  and  other  statistics 
as  to  the  prices  of  commodities.  From  time  to  time 
it  issues  special  reports  regarding  the  crop  situation 
throughout  the  country  that  are  widely  copied,  and 
the  first  of  each  year  prepares  a  valuable  general 
review  of  the  business  situation  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada. 

In  February,  1894,  the  first  Mercantile  Agency 
Manual  was  published.  This  was  a  compilation  of 
rulings  on  various  questions  and  special  information 
for  the  benefit  of  managers  that  was  prepared  at  the 
express  request  of  Mr.  Dun.  The  first  edition  com- 
prised regulations  and  instructions  that  had  been  is- 

140 


The      ]Mercaxtile  Agency 

sued  in  special  circulars  to  the  managers  from  time  to 
time  since  1883.  In  later  editions  the  valuable  ma- 
terial contained  in  this  publication  has  been  kept 


ROBERT  DUX  DOUGLASS 
Associated  with  the  management  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  for 
forty-four  years,  and  present  head  of  Board  of  Trustees 


constantly  revised  and  up  to  date,  and  the  size  of  the 
book  has  steadily  expanded  until  at  present  it  com- 

141 


Seven  t  y  -  r  i  v  e         Years  of 

prises  190  pages,  the  general  index  consisting  of  near- 
ly 450  items.  In  1897  a  separate  Reporters'  Manual 
was  issued,  a  publication  that  has  since  been  reissued 
at  occasional  intervals. 

In  1894,  no  doubt  in  consequence  of  the  panic  of 
the  year  before,  no  new  branch  offices  were  established. 
In  1895  only  one  was  opened — at  Canton,  Ohio — and 
in  1896  no  additions  were  made  to  the  Agency's  chain. 
On  September  28th  of  that  year  Arthur  J.  King  died 
at  his  residence,  Bloomfield,  N.  J.,  after  forty-seven 
years  of  service  in  The  Mercantile  Agency.  Mr. 
King  was  born  near  London,  England,  in  1824,  and 
came  to  this  country  when  a  young  man,  entering  the 
Xew  York  office  of  the  Agency  as  a  clerk.  He  was  the 
first  manager  of  the  office  at  Cleveland,  then  became 
manager  at  Cincinnati,  and  was  afterward  manager 
for  eleven  years  at  St.  Louis.  He  was  called  to  New 
York  in  1880,  and  was  a  partner  in  the  business  and 
the  general  manager  at  the  time  of  his  death.  He  w^as 
a  man  of  high  character,  inflexible  in  his  devotion  to 
principle,  and  of  unusual  business  ability.  ^Ir.  King 
was  succeeded  as  general  manager  by  Robert  Dun 
Douglass,  who  was  ]Mr.  Dun's  only  partner  for  the 
remainder  of  the  latter 's  lifetime. 

In  December,  1897,  an  office  was  opened  at  Mexi- 
co City — the  first  branch  of  the  Agency  in  Latin  Amer- 
ica. Mexico  was  then  enjoying  the  benefits  of  the 
longest  period  of  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  history 
of  the  republic.  American  and  European  capital  was 
being  invested  in  all  parts  of  the  country  and  its  vast 

142 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


natural  resources  were  beginning  to  be  developed. 
Railroads  were  in  course  of  construction  in  regions 
where  they  were  most  needed,  and  costly  port  works 
were  inaugurated  by  the  government  in  order  to  af- 
ford safe  harbors  for  the  ships  that  this  internal  ac- 
tivity brought  in  increasing  numbers.  The  time  was 
seen  to  be  most  auspi- 
cious for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  office  to 
report  to  exporters 
in  Europe  and  the 
United  States  regard- 
ing the  standing  and 
antecedents  of  the 
firms  that  were  then 
seeking  credit  abroad. 
Some  of  these  were 
new  American  or 
European  houses  es- 
tablished as  a  result 
of  the  influx  of  for- 
eign capital,  others 
wxre  concerns  that 
had  existed  for  years,  but  were  now  doing  a  larger 
business.  There  were  new  electric  light  and  power 
companies,  new  mines  and  plantations,  new  factories 
in  several  lines,  new^  trading  houses  in  every  State. 
In  1901  the  volume  of  business  necessitated  open- 
ing a  suboffice  at  Guadalajara.  Others  were  estab- 
lished from  year  to  year,  until  by  1907  there  were 


Mexico  City  Office 
Estami-sJied  1897 
2a  Capuchinas  Xo.  48 


143 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  O  F 

seven  offices  of  The  INIercantile  Agency  in  ^Nlex- 
ico.  The  Agency's  system  in  Mexico  was  at  that 
date  so  complete  that  practically  every  business 
concern  of  any  importance  in  the  republic  was 
reported,  its  list  of  correspondents  covering  every 
state,  and  nearly  every  town.  These  records  have 
been  saved  and  will  prove  of  inestimable  value  when 
business  conditions  become  normal  again,  not  only  to 
merchants  in  the  United  States  and  Europe  grant- 
ing credits  in  Mexico  to  houses  known  to  be  respon- 
sible, but  to  all  such  houses  as  well.  During  the  recent 
troubles  the  suboffices  have  been  kept  open  as  far 
as  possible,  and  the  head  office  at  Mexico  City  has 
never  closed.  The  annals  of  The  Mercantile  Agency 
contain  no  finer  example  of  courage  and  devotion 
than  that  displayed  by  its  staff  in  Mexico  since  the 
retirement  of  Porfirio  Diaz. 

On  November  17th,  1897,  announcement  was 
made  in  Boston  and  vicinity  of  an  important  change 
in  the  Boston  office  of  The  Mercantile  Agenc}^  and  the 
four  suboffices  in  that  district,  as  follows: 

The  undersigned,  sole  proprietor  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency,  who  has  conducted  its  business  since  1851, 
under  style  of  Edward  Russell  &  Co.,  with  partners, 
successively,  George  William  Gordon,  Edwin  F.  Waters, 
George  A.  Priest,  and  George  H.  Hull,  Jr.,  none  of 
them  now  living,  admonished  by  advancing  years  of 
his  necessary  retirement  ere  long,  and  desiring  repose 
after  fifty-three  years'  continuous  service  in  the  Agency, 
avails  himself  of  the  friendly  offer  of  Messrs.  R.  G.  Dun 
&  Co.  to  assume  the  business  of  his  offices  in  Boston, 
Worcester,  Lynn,  Portland  and  Bangor  from  January 
1st,  1898.  Edward  Russell. 


144 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


145 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

In  actual  operation,  the  relations  between  Ed- 
ward Russell  &  Co.  and  R.  G.  Dux  &  Co.,  and  the 
latter's  various  predecessors,  were  always  so  intimate 
that,  in  so  far  as  the  interests  of  subscribers 
were  concerned,  the  two  were  virtually  a  single  con- 
cern. Mr.  Russell  during  his  long  career  constantly 
maintained  the  highest  standards  of  The  ^lercantile 
Agency,  and  always  cordially  co-operated  with  the 
management  at  Xew  York  in  promptly  extending  to 
his  part  of  the  system  every  improvement  that  was 
made  in  theirs.  He  retired  from  the  business  enjoying 
in  the  highest  degree  the  esteem  of  his  former  associates 
and  the  respect  and  good-will  of  the  mercantile  com- 
munity throughout  Xew^  England. 

The  year  1898  w^as  a  memorable  one,  because  it 
witnessed  the  completion  of  the  beautiful  Dun  Build- 
ing at  the  northeast  corner  of  Reade  Street  and  Broad- 
way, now  familiar  wherever  The  Mercantile  Agency 
is  known  as  the  home  of  the  head  office  at  New  York. 
From  1841  to  1845  the  address  of  The  Mercantile 
Agency  (then  Lewds  Tappan  &  Co.)  was  Hanover 
Street,  corner  of  Exchange  Place.    From  1846  to 

1849  the  address  was  9  Exchange  Place,  and  from 

1850  to  1853  it  was  70  Cedar  Street.  From  1854  to 
1857  the  address  was  111  Broadway,  and  from  then 
until  1860  was  given  as  111  Broadway  and  314  Broad- 
way. It  then  became  314  Broadway  only,  and  in 
fact  that  number  is  alone  given  in  the  Reference 
Books  of  1859  and  1860.  The  office  remained  at  that 
number  during  the  war,  but  from  1865  to  1867  it  was 

146 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


147 


S  E  V  E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

located  at  293-295  Broadway — or  directly  opposite 
the  present  building,  wliich  is  Xo.  290.  From  1868 
to  January,  1878,  the  address  was  335  Broadway, 
but  between  January  and  July,  1878,  the  office  was 
moved  back  to  its  old  location  314-316  Broadw^ay, 
where  it  remained  until  the  new  building  was  com- 
pleted twenty  years  later. 

It  was  originally  planned  to  erect  a  building 
twenty-one  stories  in  height,  but  Mr.  Dun  felt  that 
there  were  enough  "sky-scrapers,"  as  structures  over 
twenty  stories  high  were  then  called,  and  the  edifice 
as  finally  completed  had  only  fifteen  floors.  As 
it  now  stands  the  edifice  is  223  feet  in  height  from 
the  sidew^alk  to  the  sill  of  the  roof,  the  flagstaff  rising 
70  feet  higher,  while  the  basement  and  sub-basement 
extend  30  feet  below^  the  street  level.  Architecturally 
it  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  most  graceful  and  beauti- 
ful office  structures  in  America.  The  exterior  is  gran- 
ite, faced  wath  white  marble,  while  the  entrance  hall 
and  the  grand  staircase  on  the  ground  floor  are  in 
Sienna  marble  from  Italy.  All  of  the  wood  used  in  the 
structure  is  fireproof,  having  been  treated  by  an  elec- 
tric process  used  by  many  navies  in  the  interior  con- 
struction of  warships.  Many  remarkable  tests  of 
wood  thus  treated  were  made  at  the  time,  and  in 
March,  1900,  a  fire  actually  broke  out  in  the  building 
which  destroyed  all  the  furniture  in  one  room.  The 
blaze  w^as  so  fierce  that  iron  hinges  were  twisted  and 
glass  melted,  but  the  woodwork  was  merely  scorched 
and  the  fire  easily  confined  to  the  room  in  which  it 

148 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


149 


S  E  A    E  X  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

started.  The  building  is  equipped  with  its  own  elec- 
tric light  and  power  plant,  steam  being  supplied 
by  two  300-H.P.  boilers,  while  the  generating  sets 
are  located  under  the  Broadway  sidewalk.  To  im- 
prove the  economy  and  regulation  of  these  generators, 
and  to  enable  the  light  and  powder  to  be  supplied  from 
one  generator  without  too  great  a  fluctuation  in  the 
voltage,  a  storage  battery  of  114<  cells  of  chloride  ac- 
cumulators has  been  installed  on  the  roof.  In  addi- 
tion to  supplying  current  for  the  electric  lights  in  the 
building  this  plant  furnishes  the  power  for  six 
Sprague  screw-type  electric  elevators,  an  ash  hoist, 
a  sidew^alk  elevator  and  a  72-inch  fan — all  motor 
driven — together  with  a  pump  to  supply  water  to 
all  floors.  The  building  also  contains  a  10-ton  re- 
frigerating plant  for  furnishing  ice  water  to  the  ten- 
ants and  for  the  use  of  a  restaurant  that  is  located  in 
the  basement. 

As  the  building  was  erected  primarily  as  the  head 
office  of  The  Mercantile  Agency,  the  six  upper  floors, 
from  the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth,  were  expressly  de- 
signed to  meet  the  needs  of  the  business.  In  recent 
years  the  whole  of  the  ninth  floor  has  also  been  oc- 
cupied by  the  firm  for  its  own  offices  and  about  INI  ay 
1st  of  the  present  year  ( 1916) ,  the  first  floor  was  taken 
also.  The  executive  offices  are  on  the  eleventh  floor 
and  are  handsomely  finished  in  Pavonoza  marble. 
Some  years  ago  a  business  magazine  published  a  pic- 
ture of  the  eleventh  floor  in  a  series  of  illustrations 
entitled  "Famous  Battlefields  of  Business."  The 


150 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

railed-off  section  occupied  by  the  general  manager  and 
liis  assistants  might  better  be  hkened  to  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  general  staff  of  a  great  army,  for  around  the 
broad  mahogany  table  at  which  the  manager  sits  mat- 
ters are  decided  that  affect  every  office  in  the  Agency's 
world-wide  chain,  and  influence  the  activities  of  each 
of  its  many  thousands  of  employees. 

The  City  Department  occupies  all  of  the  first 
floor,  with  its  mezzanine  gallery,  half  of  the  second, 
part  of  the  seventh,  and  most  of  the  fifteenth  floors. 
In  this  department  are  recorded  the  reports  covering 
the  enormous  commercial  activities  of  the  City  of  New 
York  in  all  of  its  five  boroughs.  The  twelfth  floor  is 
occupied  by  the  Eastern  Department,  and  the  thir- 
teenth and  fourteenth  by  the  Department  of  the  South 
and  West,  the  latter  also  including  Canada.  The 
tenth  floor  is  occupied  by  the  Collection  Department, 
while  the  ninth  contains  the  Foreign  Department,  the 
Reference  Book  Department  and  the  offices  of  Dux^s 
Review. 

Another  interesting  event  in  the  year  1898  was 
the  establishment  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  Mutual 
Benefit  Association  by  a  number  of  the  employees  of 
the  New  York  office,  for  the  purpose  of  providing  a 
fund  from  which  death  benefits  could  be  paid.  All 
the  employees,  without  exception,  were  declared  eli- 
gible, irrespective  of  age,  physical  condition,  or  any 
of  the  considerations  that  usually  api^ly  in  undertak- 
ings of  this  character.  Under  the  plan  adopted,  the 
payment  of  five  cents  per  week  provides  for  a  death 

152 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

benefit  of  $200,  while  for  ten  cents  a  week,  the  amount 
of  the  benefit  has  been  fixed  at  $300. 

During  the  eighteen  years  of  the  Association's 
existence,  benefits  to  the  number  of  121  have  been 
paid,  or  a  total  of  $28,500.  The  Association  had  to 
its  credit  January  1st,  1916,  funds,  securely  invested 
or  deposited  in  savings  banks,  amounting  to  $15,- 
889.85.  While  the  creation  of  this  surplus  was  partly 
due  to  contributions  by  the  firm,  the  Association,  not- 
withstanding the  liberal  terms  under  which  its  bene- 
fits are  provided,  has  been  able  to  meet  all  its  obliga- 
tions from  the  annual  dues,  interest  on  investments, 
and  the  proceeds  of  annual  entertainments,  which  all 
connected  with  the  business,  from  owners  to  route 
boys,  look  forward  to,  attend,  and  heartily  enjoy. 

In  1898  one  branch  office  w^as  established — at 
Menominee,  Mich.,  its  district  including  the  rich  cop- 
per and  iron  fields  in  the  Upper  Peninsula  of  Michi- 
gan and  the  vast  lumber  region  of  northwestern  Wis- 
consin. In  1899  an  office  was  established  at  Havana, 
Cuba.  It  proved  successful  from  the  very  start  and 
has  been  most  helpful  to  the  mercantile  interests  of 
the  Island  as  well  as  to  European  and  American  mer- 
chants extending  credit  there. 

During  the  year  1900,  by  a  somewhat  remark- 
able coincidence,  the  two  men  who  had  been  succes- 
sively at  the  head  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  for  more 
than  fifty  years  passed  away  within  a  few  months  of 
one  another.  On  May  4th,  Benjamin  Douglass,  the 
second  proprietor  of  the  Agency,  died  at  Santa  Bar- 


153 


Seventy-five        Years  of 

bara,  Cal.  On  disposing  of  his  interest  in  the  institu- 
tion to  Mr.  Dun  in  18,59,  Mr.  Douglass  virtually  re- 
tired from  business,  but  in  1876  he  again  entered  the 
service  of  The  INIercantile  Agency  as  manager  of  the 
Chicago  office  and  district.  This  j^osition  he  retained 
until  January  1st,  1889,  eleven  years  before  his  death. 
This  was  a  j^eriod  of  thirteen  years,  and — curiously 
enough — it  was  for  an  equal  period  that  he  was  pre- 
viously connected  with  the  Agency,  from  1846  to 
1859.  One  is  strongly  reminded  of  the  famous  ex- 
ample of  John  Quincy  Adams  who,  after  having  been 
President  of  the  United  States,  became  a  member  of 
Congress  from  Massachusetts,  and  for  many  years 
served  his  State  and  the  nation  with  distinguished 
success  in  this  humbler  capacity  without  in  any  way 
lessening  his  dignity  or  fame.  In  the  same  way  Mr. 
Douglass  after  having  played  a  conspicuous  part  as 
one  of  the  founders  and  early  proprietors  of  The  Mer- 
cantile Agency,  achieved  a  new  success  and  won  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  all  who  came  in  contact  with  him 
in  his  later  position  of  district  manager.  In  addition 
to  his  remarkable  business  ability,  Mr.  Douglass  was 
a  fine  Hebrew  and  Greek  scholar  and  a  writer  of  great 
force  and  clearness.  His  handwriting,  many  exam- 
ples of  which  are  still  preserved  in  the  archives  of  the 
Agency,  resembled  engraving  in  its  neatness  and 
legibility. 

On  November  10th,  1900 — or  slightly  more  than 
six  months  after  the  death  of  his  former  partner — 
Robert  Graham  Dun,  the  sole  proprietor  of  The  Mer- 

154 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

cantile  Agency,  died  at  his  New  York  residence.  He 
had  been  associated  with  the  Agency  for  nearly  half 
a  century  and  its  sole  owner  since  1859.  He  had  been 
intimately  associated  with  its  growth  from  a  loosely 
united  group  of  seven  small  offices,  having  less  than  75 
employees,  to  a  powerful  institution  of  world-wide 
renown,  with  140  offices  and  several  thousand  em- 
ployees. At  the  time  of  his  death  many  hundreds  of 
newspapers  noted  the  event  and  published  sketches 
of  his  career.  One  of  the  best  summaries,  however,  of 
the  qualities  that  in  a  great  measure  account  for  his 
success,  appeared  in  the  National  Cyclopedia  of 
American  Biography,  published  in  1899: 

In  New  York^  where  he  is  well  known,  Mr.  Dun 
is  universally  respected  for  his  high  integrity,  broad  and 
liberal  views,  exceeding  amiability,  good  judgment,  and 
his  love  of  art.  His  special  attribute,  however,  has 
been  his  insight  into  character,  and  his  ability  to  secure 
and  retain  the  services  of  men  of  a  high  degree  of  capa- 
city and  energy,  so  that  he  has  constantly  augmented 
the  army  of  capable  and  reliable  people  about  him. 
The  men  of  high  ability  whom  this  Agency  employs  in 
every  city,  and  the  excellent  local  standing  of  its  repre- 
sentatives everywhere,  are  evidences  of  this.  Few 
names  are  more  prominent  in  commercial  circles  than 
that  of  Robert  Graham  Dun,  while  as  the  head  of  a 
great  instrumentality  of  commerce  in  especial  relation 
to  the  granting  of  credits,  Mr.  Dun  has  attracted  the 
attention  of  the  people  at  large. 

Emerson  has  said  that  "an  institution  is  the 
lengthening  shadow  of  one  man."  Partly  by  reason  of 
his  great  gift  in  choosing  his  associates,  The  Mercantile 
Agency  that  bears  the  name  of  R.  G.  Dun  &  Co.  is  the 
''lengthening  shadow"  of  many  men.  It  bears  indelibly 


155 


Seyenty-five        Years  of 

impressed  upon  its  organization  the  marks  of  Lewis 
Tappan,  its  founder.  JNIany  of  its  most  fundamental 
characteristics  are  due  to  Benjamin  Douglass,  who 
had  charge  of  its  destinies  during  the  formative  period 
when  its  principles  and  policies  were  determined  for 
all  time.  Some  of  the  most  important  features  of  the 
Agency  service  of  to-day  were  planned  and  inaugu- 
rated under  the  direct  personal  supervision  of  one  or 
another  of  Mr.  Dun's  associates  in  the  executive 
management  of  the  business,  or  were  the  result  of  the 
joint  efforts  of  the  entire  executive  body.  Countless 
improvements,  many  of  them  of  great  value,  were 
suggested  by  branch  office  managers.  No  greater 
tribute  can  be  paid  to  the  memory  of  Mr.  Dun  than  to 
recall  the  fact  that  during  the  forty-one  years  of  his 
supreme  control  The  Mercantile  Agency  continued  to 
expand  and  to  improve  without  interruption.  There 
was  no  backward  step.  As  men  of  old  built  monu- 
ments and  temples  to  their  memory,  so  jNIr.  Dun  erect- 
ed during  these  forty-one  years  a  monument  more 
durable  than  bronze  or  stone — the  great  institution 
that  bears  his  name. 

Since  Mr.  Dun's  death  the  business  has  been 
conducted  under  a  trusteeship,  the  trustees  after  the 
death  of  Mrs.  Dun  being  Robert  Dun  Douglass,  Fran- 
cis L.  jVIinton  and  Thomas  James.  Mr.  James  had 
previously  been  connected  with  the  work  of  the  Agency 
for  a  number  of  years  and  on  his  death,  in  1912,  was 
succeeded  as  trustee  by  Joseph  Packard. 


156 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

In  1901  the  executive  management  at  New  York 
inaugm-ated  a  policy  of  world-wide  expansion  that  has 
made  the  last  fifteen  years  as  notable  as  any  period  in 
the  history  of  the  Agency.  Up  to  that  time  the 
branches  at  London,  Paris,  Berlin,  etc.,  were  not  re- 
porting offices  like  those  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  but  confined  their  work  to  collecting  credit 
information  regarding  such  firms  in  their  respective 
districts  as  had  been  or  were  likely  to  be  inquired 
about  in  this  country. 

Every  foreign  office  was  now  instructed  to  collect 
reports  regarding  all  of  the  principal  traders  in  its  dis- 
trict, and  to  offer  the  information  thus  secured  to  local 
clients  as  well  as  to  those  abroad.  This  broader  sphere 
of  action  resulted  in  a  vast  increase  in  the  volume  of 
business  transacted  and  necessitated  the  rapid  estab- 
lishment of  suboffices  in  every  district.  Simultaneous- 
ly with  this  expansion  in  the  regions  already  covered 
by  the  Agency's  service,  the  executives  at  New  York 
took  vigorous  steps  to  establish  the  organization  in 
countries  that  it  had  never  hitherto  reached.  There 
is  no  "romance  of  business"  more  fascinating  than 
the  record  of  these  fifteen  years.  It  is  a  record  of 
achievement  in  widely  scattered  fields,  and  under  pro- 
foundly dissimilar  conditions,  that,  taken  as  a  whole, 
has  few  parallels  in  the  annals  of  American  business 
expansion  in  foreign  lands. 

The  very  first  office  established  after  the  new  poli- 
cy had  been  decided  upon  affords  an  excellent  example 
of  its  results  and  a  striking  illustration  of  its  wisdom. 


157 


Sevexty-five        Years  of 

This  was  the  branch  at  Cape  Town,  South  Africa, 
which  was  opened  in  1901.  The  Boer  War,  which 
began  in  October,  1899,  was  then  still  in  progress. 
The  annexation  of  the  Transvaal  had  been  proclaimed 
September  1st,  1900,  and  that  of  the  Orange  Free 
State  May  24th  of  the  same  year,  but  hostilities  did 
not  cease  until  May  31st,  1902.  There  were  many 
who  considered  this  a  peculiarly  inopportune  time  to 
inaugurate  the  business  of  The  ^Mercantile  Agency 
in  that  country.  jNIr.  Douglass,  on  the  other  hand, 
insisted  that  it  was  the  psychological  moment  to 
launch  such  an  enterprise.  The  result  vindicated  his 
judgment  and  foresight  in  a  remarkable  manner. 

By  entering  the  field  at  this  time  it  was  possible 
to  secure  reports  regarding  practically  all  the  im2:)or- 
tant  concerns  that  had  been  engaged  in  business  in 
South  Africa  before  the  war,  as  well  as  to  keep  track 
of  the  numerous  changes  that  took  place  during  the 
years  of  the  conflict.  Thus  equipped,  the  Agency, 
by  the  time  peace  was  restored  and  business  condi- 
tions began  to  return  to  their  normal  state,  possessed 
a  mass  of  data  that  no  later  comer  in  the  territory 
could  ever  hope  to  duplicate.  It  thus  came  to  be 
recognized  both  in  South  Africa  and  in  Europe  as 
the  foremost  authority  on  all  matters  relating  to  the 
financial  standing  of  South  African  traders,  and  par- 
ticularly regarding  the  credit  record  of  houses  that 
were  in  existence  before  the  war,  or  the  partners  in 
such  houses  who  afterward  undertook  new  enterprises. 
The  growth  in  the  volume  of  South  African  business 

158 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

was  so  rapid  that  in  1903 — the  year  after  the  close 
of  hostihties — a  suboffice  was  opened  at  Johannes- 
burg. This  was  followed  by  another  subofRce  at  Port 
Ehzabeth  in  1904,  and  one  at  Durban  in  1905,  making 
a  chain  of  four  South  African  offices  established  in 
four  years. 

Some  conception  of  the  courage  required  to  es- 
tablish these  offices  may  be  obtained  from  the  fact  that 
a  very  large  amount  was  expended  in  South  Africa  be- 
fore the  business  there  became  self-supporting.  This  is 
the  invariable  experience  in  opening  new  offices  in  a 
virgin  field,  since  large  sums  are  required  to  collect 
and  record  the  data  regarding  the  many  thousands 
or  tens  of  thousands  of  business  houses  in  such  districts 
before  clients  can  be  called  upon  to  pay  one  penny  for 
reports.  Subscribers  to  foreign  reports  frequently 
overlook  this  fact.  The  collection  of  information  in 
South  Africa  during  w^ar  time  was  especially  difficult 
and  costly,  but  the  effort  was  more  than  justified  by 
the  fact,  as  already  noted,  that  much  of  the  data  thus 
secured  could  never  have  been  obtained  afterward. 

The  establishment  of  a  branch  office  of  the 
Agency  at  Berlin,  Germany,  has  already  been  men- 
tioned. The  new  policy  with  respect  to  the  foreign 
offices  involved  a  change  in  the  service  rendered  that 
proved  to  be  exceptionally  well  adapted  to  the  needs 
of  the  business  community  in  the  German  Empire. 
Xot  only  were  commerce  and  industry  in  that  country 
highly  developed,  so  that  the  value  of  this  new  facility 
for  the  further  safeguarding  of  credits  was  instantly 

159 


Seventy-five         Years  of 


appreciated,  but  the  vast  extent  of  Germany's  foreign 
trade,  both  export  and  import,  rendered  the  overseas 
service  of  The  ]Mercantile  Ao-ency  especially  helpful. 
The  result  was  an  expansion  of  the  business  in  Ger- 
many that  necessitated  the  02)ening  of  one  subolfice 
after  another  in  raj^id  succession  until  the  Agency's 
chain  in  the  German  Emj^ire  alone  numbered  twenty- 
three  offices,  in  addition  to  which  five  branches  were 
established  in  Austria-Hungary  and  three  in  the 
Netherlands  that  were  subsidiary  to  the  head  office  in 
Germany.  Of  these  no  less  than  four  were  opened 
in  1901,  beginning  with  the  office  at  Hamburg,  which 
w^'is  established  in  February  of  that  year.  Following 
is  a  list  of  the  offices  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in 
Germany,  Austria-Hungary  and  the  Netherlands, 
with  the  dates  on  which  they  were  established: 

Berlin   1876  Munich   1906 

Hamburg  1901  Budapest  1907 

Bremen  1901  Prague  1907 

Cologne  1901  Dresden  1907 

Frankfort  a  M  1901  Dusseldorf   1907 

Leipzig  1902  Plauen  1907 

Breslau  1902  Stuttgart  1907 

Magdeburg  1902  Elberfeld  1908 

Amsterdam  1902  Trieste   1908 

Vienna   1904  Strassburg   1908 

Rotterdam  1905  Konigsberg  1912 

Mannheim  1906  Saarbrucken  1912 

Hanover   1906  Erfurt  1912 

Nuremberg  1906  Lemberg  1914 

Danzig  1906  The  Hague  1914 

Dortmund  1906 

The  year  1901  also  witnessed  a  further  expansion 

of  the  Agency's  service  in  Australia,  an  office  being 

160 


The      JNIercantile  Agency 


Seyexty-five        Years  of 


established  during  that  year  at  Sydney,  New  South 
Wales.  The  Melbourne  office  had  been  in  operation 
since  1887,  but  was  largely  used  for  the  purpose  of 
securing  information  regarding  Australian  traders 
for  the  benefit  of  shippers  in  other  parts  of  the  world. 
Under  the  new  policy  just  inaugurated,  the  activities 
of  the  Australian  district  began  to  include  reporting 
both  Australian  and  foreign  houses  for  the  benefit 
of  Australian  merchants  and  manufacturers.  This 
necessitated  there,  as  elsewhere,  a  rapid  expansion 
of  the  facilities  for  collecting  and  recording  the  neces- 
sary information.  Instead  of  only  carrying  on  their 
records  reports  concerning  houses  engaged  in  foreign 
trade,  the  Agency  in  Australia  now  sought  to  report 
all  traders  just  as  was  done  in  the  United  States  and 
Canada.  The  new  branch  at  Sydney  was  made  the 
head  office  for  the  Commonwealth,  which  was  pro- 
claimed on  January  1st  of  the  very  year  of  its  establish- 
ment. The  subsequent  expansion  of  the  business  of 
The  Mercantile  Agency  in  Australasia  was  rapid.  In 
1902,  a  suboffice  w^as  established  at  Brisbane,  the  capi- 
tal of  Queensland.  In  1903  suboffices  were  opened  at 
Adelaide,  South  Australia,  and  at  Wellington,  New 
Zealand — that  Dominion  also  forming  a  part  of  the 
Sydney  district.  In  1908  three  additional  offices  were 
opened  in  Xew  Zealand — at  Auckland,  Christchurch 
and  Dunedin — and  in  1913  the  Agency's  chain  of 
offices  in  the  state  capitals  of  Australia  was  made  com- 

162 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


S  E  V  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 

l^lete  by  the  establishment  of  a  branch  at  Perth,  West- 
ern Austraha. 

The  Paris  office,  like  those  at  London  and  Berlin, 
was  greatly  strengthened  by  the  new  policy  enabling 
it  to  do  a  local  as  well  as  an  international  business. 
It  was  not  until  1902  that  this  plan  was  extended  to 

the  Paris  district.  The 
effect  was  immediate. 
In  thirty  years  the 
staff  had  only  in- 
creased from  three 
employees,  the  num- 
ber in  1872,  to  five. 
The  very  year  of  the 
change  in  policy  the 
first  suboffice  w  a  s 
opened  at  Brussels, 
Belgium — and  by  the 
following  year  the 
staff  at  Paris  had  in- 
creased to  twenty. 
The  Paris  district 
comprised  all  of 
Western  Europe,  in- 
cluding France,  Belgium,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain 
and  Portugal,  together  with  Egypt,  Tunis  and  Al- 
geria. Altogether,  the  Paris  staff  has  to  translate 
rejDorts  in  no  less  than  twelve  languages.  The  energy 
with  which  the  district  was  developed  is  indicated  by 
the  fact  that  in  1903  suboffices  were  established  at 


fiydney,  X.       W.,  Office 
Established  mi 
Chains  House,  Martin  Place 


164. 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


Barcelona,  Si)ain;  Havre  and  Lille,  France;  Zurich, 
Switzerland,  and  INIilan,  Italy.  The  complete  list 
of  offices  opened  in  these  countries  with  their  respec- 
tive dates,  is  as  follows: 


FRANCE 

Havre   1903 

Lille  1903 

Paris  1872 

BELGIUM 

Antwerp   1904- 

Brussels  1902 

Liege  1912 

SWITZERLAND 
Zurich  1903 

PORTUGAL 

Lisbon  1906 

Oporto  1912 


SPAIN 

Barcelona  1903 

Bilbao  1912 

Madrid   1906 

:\Ialaga  1912 

Murcia   1912 

Seville  1913 

Valencia   1912 

ITALY 

Milan  1903 

Naples   1912 

Turin  1915 


The  year  1902,  which  marks  the  beginning  of  the 
period  of  active  development  and  expansion  in  the 
business  of  The  Mercantile  Agency  in  Western 
Europe,  is  also  memorable  as  the  date  when  the  first 
extension  of  its  service  was  made  to  South  America. 
The  pioneer  office  on  that  continent  was  located  at 
Buenos  Aires,  its  district  including  not  only  Argen- 
tina but  the  republics  of  Paraguay  and  Uruguay.  A 
suboffice  was  established  at  Rosario  in  1913.  In  1912, 
in  response  to  the  urgent  requests  of  business  men  in 
that  country,  an  independent  branch  office  was  opened 
at  Rio  de  Janeiro,  Brazil.  The  chain  of  offices  in 
Latin  America,  which  comprises  in  addition  to  the 
three  just  mentioned  seven  in  Mexico  and  one  in  Cuba, 


166 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

has  recently  been  supplemented  by  the  establishment 
of  a  branch  at  San  Juan,  Porto  Rico.  The  other 
islands  in  the  Caribbean  region — Spanish,  English, 
French,  Danish  and  Dutch — are  covered  by  an  army  of 
correspondents  located  in  every  trading  center.  These 
report  direct  to  New  York,  as  steamship  communica- 


The  Paris  Office,  which  was  established  in  1872,  and  is  now  located 
at  5  Boulevard  Montmartre,  is  the  head  office  for  France, 
Belgium,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Spain  and  Portugal 


tions  between  that  port  and  the  various  ports  of  the 
West  Indies  are  more  regular  and  frequent  than 
those  between  many  of  the  islands  themselves. 

The  rapid  expansion  of  the  foreign  service  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency  in  1901,  1902  and  1903 — no  less 
than  27  offices  being  opened  abroad  during  those  three 
years — suggested  to  the  management  the  desirability 


167 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 


Bilbao  Office,  estal)Ushed  in  1912,  and  located  at  Calle  Estacion  5, 
"Edificio  Aurora" 


of  publishing  an  International  Edition  of  Dux^s  Re- 
view in  order  to  link  this  world-wide  chain  of  offices 
together  through  a  publication  in  which  all  would  be 
equally  interested.  Accordingly,  in  March,  1903,  the 
first  number  of  Dux^s  Ixterx^atiox^al  Review  was 
issued.    The  publication  met  with  immediate  success, 


Milayi  Office,  estahlished  in  1903,  and  located  at  Via  Orefici  1, 
(Piazza  del  DiiomoJ 

168 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


and  a  few  months  later  a  separate  edition  in  Spanish 
was  inaugurated.  It  has  since  been  published  in  two 
monthly  editions,  English  and  Spanish,  and  is  recog- 
nized as  a  leader  in  the  field  of  international  jour- 
nalism. Its  advertis- 
ing clients  comprise 
several  hundred  of 
the  leading  manufac- 
turers seeking  foreign 
markets,  and  it  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that 
its  patronage  has  been 
drawn  from  sixteen 
different  countries 
and  has  included  four 
Governments.  In  this 
respect  it  is  more  truly 
an  international  paper 
than  any  publication 
in  its  field.  A  feature 
of  the  International 
Edition  of  Dun^s 
Review  of  great  value 
to  business  men  every- 
where is  its  series  of  reports  on  trade  conditions,  pre- 
pared by  the  managers  of  the  foreign  offices  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency  or  by  the  Review^s  own  corre- 
spondents in  countries  where  offices  have  not  yet  been 
established. 


Buenos  Aires  Office 
Established  W02 
Banco  Germanico  Building 


169 


Seventy-five        Years  of 


Another  branch  of  the  organization  that  is  directly 
due  to  the  Agency's  offices  abroad  is  the  Foreign  De- 
partment. Here  are  kept  constantly  on  file  the  re- 
ports regarding  many  thousands  of  concerns  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  Whenever  a  report  on  any  foreign 
firm  is  requested  in  the  United  States  or  Canada 
it  is  procured,  if  not  already  on  file,  and  branch  offices 
al)road  also  send  to  New  York  all  reports  that  are 
likely  to  be  inquired  for  there.    In  addition  to  these, 


out  waiting  for  the  information  to  come  from  the 
country  in  question,  the  data  he  needs  to  determine 
his  pros^^ect's  credit  responsibility  being  already  re- 
corded at  New  York.  This  is  an  inestimable  benefit 
to  exporters,  since  a  delay  in  the  foreign  trade  fre- 
quently means  loss  of  orders. 


Havana  Office 
Established  1899 
Banco  Xacional  dc  Cuha  Building 


copies  of  all  reports 
written  up  regarding 
firms  in  South  Amer- 
ica, Central  America 
and  the  West  Indies 
are  filed  at  New  York. 
This  means  that  a 
manufacturer  doing 
business  abroad — and 
especially  in  Latin 
America  and  the  West 
Indies — can,  in  many 
cases,  secure  a  report 
regarding  a  prospec- 
tive   customer  with- 


170 


The      Mercantile  Agency 


It  should  not  be  concluded  from  the  amount  of 
space  devoted  in  this  chapter  to  the  extension  of  The 
Mercantile  Agency  in  other  lands  that  its  growth  in 
the  United  States  and  Canada  was  arrested  during 
this  period.  On  the  contrary,  the  last  fifteen  years 
have  brought  a  steady 
series  of  additions  to 
the  Agency  c  h  a  i  n. 
Naturally,  however, 
most  of  the  new  offices 
are  in  places  of  some- 
what less  importance 
than  those  previously 
established,  owing  to 
the  thoroughness 
with  which  the  new 
offices  opened  in  the 
seventies  and  eighties 
covered  the  more  im- 
portant points  in 
every  district.  The 
list  on  page  172  shows 
the  new  offices  in  the 
United  States  and 
Canada  established 
between    1891  and 

July,  1916,  with  the  date  of  each.  Of  these  ten  were  in 
Canada,  all  of  them  located  in  the  Canadian  North- 
west. The  principal  development  in  the  United  States 
was  in  the  South,  Southwest  and  West. 
171 


Eio  de  Janeiro  Office 
Established  1912 
Jornal  do  Brasil  Building 


Seventy  -  FIVE        Years  of 


Vancouver   1891 

Winston-Salem  1891 

Trenton  1892 

Quebec   1892 

Ottawa   1892 

Wilkes-Barre   1892 

Zanesville   1893 

Charleston,  W.  Va. .  .1893 

Canton,  0  1895 

Menominee  1898 

Oklahoma  1902 

Youngstown   1902 

Beaumont  1902 

Meridian   1902 

Selma   1902 

Columbia,  S.  C  1902 

Green  Bay  1903 

Albuquerque  1903 

Tampa  1905 

Waterloo  1905 

Calgary   1906 

Harrisburg  1908 


Muskogee   1909 

Pensacola   1909 

Greenville  1910 

Edmonton   1910 

Butte  1910 

Regina  1910 

Saskatoon  1910 

Easton  1910 

Victoria,  B.  C  1910 

Beaver  Falls  1911 

Abilene  1911 

Amarillo   1911 

San  Diego  1911 

Moose  Jaw  1912 

Lethbridge   1913 

Jamestown   1914 

Oakland  1914 

Sacramento  1914 

Phoenix   1914 

Paterson  1914 

Tulsa  1916 

Terre  Haute  1916 


New  Mezzanine  Gallery  on  first  floor  of  the  Dun  Building 
Where  the  dictaphone  operators  of  the  Citii  Department  are 
loeated.    Dictaphones  are  largely  used  in  this  Department 


172 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 


As  early  as  1860  a  printing  department  was 
established  to  take  care  of  the  Reference  Book  and 
the  numerous  forms  used  in  the  business.  This  plant 
was  first  located  at  10-12  Reade  Street.  In  JNIay, 
1871,  it  was  removed  to  83  Centre  Street,  where  it  was 
totally  destroyed  by  fire  on  Christmas  eve,  1872.  The 
next  location  was  at  148  Worth  Street,  and  in  1882  a 
large  printing  house  was  erected  at  57-59  Park  Street. 
Here  an  entire  floor 
was  occupied  by  the 
presses  on  which  the 
Reference  Books  were 
printed,  the  second 
floor  was  arranged  for 
the  compositors  and 
proofreaders,  while 
the  third  contained 
the  job  dei^artment 
where  blanks  and 
other  stationer}^  were 
printed.  The  bindery 
occupied  the  remain- 
der of  the  third  floor 
and  the  whole  of  the  fourth  and  fifth.  The  cases  on 
the  second  floor  in  this  building  contained  more  than 
seventy-five  tons  of  agate  type  alone,  and  the  entire 
plant  was  valued  at  upward  of  $250,000. 

The  growth  of  the  business,  however,  made  even 
this  plant  inadequate,  and  an  additional  building  was 
erected  for  the  presses  on  which  the  Ixterxatioxal 

173 


Charleston,  W.  Va.,  Office 
Established  1893 
Citizens'  National  Bank  Building 


Seventy-five         Years  of 


Review  was  printed  as  early  as  190."5.  The  increase  in 
the  size  of  the  Reference  Book  and  in  the  numher  of 
copies  required  presently  made  the  entire  establishment 
overcrowded,  especially  at  the  seasons  when  the  work 
on  the  January  and  July  books  was  going  on.  In  1913 
the  City  of  New  York  acquired  the  site  occupied  by 
the  Park  Street  plant  for  the  proposed  civic  center 
in  connection  with  the  new  Court  House,  and  the  firm 
then  began  the  erection  of  a  new  and  much  larger 
printing  house  at  the 
northwest  corner  of 
Butler  and  X  e  v  i  n  s 
Streets,  in  the  Bor- 
ough of  Brooklyn. 

This  establishment, 
wliich  was  completed 
and  occupied  on  Au- 
gust 1st,  1914,  is  re- 
garded as  one  of  the 
most  up-to-date  print- 
ing offices  in  the 
United  States.  The  building  is  of  reinforced  con- 
crete, 200  feet  long  by  100  feet  wide,  and  is  four 
stories  in  height.  On  the  ground  floor  are  located  the 
office  of  the  Superintendent,  the  pressroom  and  the 
shipping  and  stock  rooms.  The  pressroom  contains 
eight  flat-bed  presses  and  two  Cottrell  rotary  presses 
of  the  latest  type,  capable  of  printing  on  both  sides, 
folding  and  delivering  eighty-five  32-page  forms  of 
the  Reference  Book  per  minute.    There  are  also  five 


Butte,  Mont.,  Office 
E.stahlished  1910 
First  Xational  Bank  BuUding 


174 


The      Mercantile  Agexcy 


job  platen  presses  for  short  runs  and  miscellaneous 
job  work.  On  the  second  floor  are  10  linotype 
machines,  the  entire  Reference  Book  now  being  set  on 
these  machines  instead  of  by  hand  composition  as 
before.  Adjacent  to  the  machines  are  the  cabinets 
where  the  3,174  page 
forms  of  the  book  are 
kept  in  numbered 
racks,  ready  to  be 
taken  out  at  any  time 
for  corrections,  and 
then  sent  to  the  stereo- 
type room,  which  is  on 
the  same  floor,  w^iere 
plates  are  made  for 
the  pressroom.  The 
third  floor  contains  the 
bindery,  w  h  i  c  h  has 
been  modernized 
throughout  to  corre- 
spond with  the  other 
branches  of  the  new 
plant,  and  is  now  able 
to  bind  close  to  1,000 
copies  of  the  Refer- 
ence Book  per  day.  In  addition  to  printing  and  bind- 
ing the  Reference  Book,  the  printing  house  prints  and 
binds  the  weekly  and  monthly  editions  of  Dux's  Re- 
viEAr  and  the  pocket  editions  of  the  Reference  Book, 
besides  turning  out  stationery  and  forms  for  the  vari- 
175 


Old  Printing  House  of  R.  G.  DUX  tC-  CO. 
at  57-59  Park  Street 
Occupied  from  1882  to  191', 


S  E  A'  E  N  T  Y  -  F  I  V  E  Y  E  A  R  S  OF 


Oils  offices  throiio'hoiit  the  country.  INIotor  cars  cany 
work  between  this  de])artnient  and  the  head  office,  and 
dehver  Reference  Books  throughout  the  city. 

With  the  opening  of  the  office  at  Terre  Haute, 
Ind.,  in  July,  1916,  the  number  of  offices  in  The  ]Mer- 
cantile  Agency  amounted  to  243,  besides  24  reporting 
stations,  some  of  which  are  as  large  as  offices.  The 


imiillllli  I 


yew  Printing  House  of  R.  G.  Dl  X  d  CO. 
Corner  of  Butler  and  Xevins  Streets,  in  the  Borough  of  Brooklyn. 
Reinforced  concrete,  four  stories  high,  200  feet  long  and  100  feet  wide 

epoch-making  changes  produced  by  the  world  war  will 
necessitate  new  extensions  in  the  foreign  field,  while 
the  process  of  ceaseless  growth  in  the  United  States 
and  Canada  will  bring  about  gradual  additions  to  the 
Agency's  chain  of  offices  in  this  country  and  in  the 
Dominion.  Considered  in  its  broadest  sense,  the  func- 
tion of  The  Mercantile  Agency  is  to  keep  abreast  of 

176 


The      JNIercaxtile  Agency 


the  progress  of  mankind  in  all  matters  relating 
to  credit.   As  the  pioneers  of  civilization  have  pushed 


Portion  of  the  pressroom,  showing  flat-hed  presses  used  for  print- 
ing the  weekly  and  monthly  editions  of  Dux's  Review 


farther  into  the  undeveloped  regions  of  the  world  the 
Agency  has  followed  them,  for  capital  as  well  as  labor 


The  two  Cottrell  rotary  presses  for  printing  the  Reference  Book. 
Each  machine  prints,  folds  and  delivers  2,720  pages  per  minute 


is  needed  in  all  such  enterprises,  and  capital  can  never 
be  forthcoming  unless  the  credit  qualifications  of  those 
who  seek  it  have  first  been  carefully  determined. 

177 


Seventy-five         Years  of 

When  The  ^lercaiitile  Agency  was  estahhshed 
at  Xew  York  hy  Lewis  Tappan  in  1841  it  was  the  first 
institution  of  its  kind  in  the  workl.  Under  Benjamin 
Dougkass  it  was  strengthened  as  to  its  poHcies  and 
methods  and  made  national  in  scope.  Under  Rohert 
Graham  Dun  it  was  expanded  until  it  covered  the 
United  States  and  Canada  with  a  network  of  offices, 


The  composing  room  in  the  Printing  House,  shoxciny  hatterij  of 
linotype  machines  (at  left)  and  part  of  the  cabinets  in  ichich 
the  page  forms  of  the  Reference  Bool:  are  kept 


while  the  volume  of  its  transactions  far  exceeded  the 
w^ildest  visions  of  its  founders.  Under  Robert  Dun 
Douglass  it  has  been  once  more  expanded  into  a  world- 
wide organization,  and  the  magnitude  of  its  trans- 
actions again  multiplied. 

Robert  Dun  Douglass  first  entered  the  service  of 
the  Agency  in  1872  and  has  been  intimately  associated 

178 


The      Mercaxtile  Agency 

with  its  management  ever  since — a  period  of  forty- 
fom'  years.  Most  of  those  connected  with  the  great 
institution  to-day  have  known  no  other  chief,  and  in 
them  all  he  has  inspired  an  intense  spirit  of  loyalty  to 
the  Agency  and  of  personal  devotion  to  himself.  On 
January  1st,  1910,  Mr.  Douglass  decided  to  relinquish 
the  cares  and  responsibilities  of  general  manager,  but 
as  one  of  the  Trustees  he  continues  to  direct  the 
policies  of  the  business  and  to  promote  its  further  ex- 
pansion and  prosperity. 

Closely  associated  with  jNIr.  Douglass  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Agency  in  recent  years  have  been  his  fellow 
Trustees,  Francis  L.  JNIinton  and  Joseph  Packard. 
Mr.  Minton  has  been  connected  with  the  institution, 
as  an  adviser  and  director,  for  more  than  forty  years, 
and  has  been  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  since 
the  death  of  ^Ir.  Dun.  His  tireless  energy,  extensive 
legal  knowledge  and  sound  judgment  have  contrib- 
uted materially  to  the  progress  of  the  organization 
throughout  the  period  covered  by  this  chapter.  An- 
other pilot  of  the  business  for  over  forty  years  is  Ben- 
jamin Douglass,  Jr.,  whose  judicious  judgment  has 
often  been  of  inestimable  service  to  the  executives  of 
the  institution,  and  whose  vision  has  never  been 
clouded  by  any  ill-temper  nor  distorted  by  any  un- 
worthy purpose.  The  present  General  ]Manager  of 
The  ISIercantile  Agency  is  A.  W.  Ferguson,  who 
has  occupied  that  position  since  1910.  In  a  rec- 
ord covering  nearly  three  generations  it  is  impos- 
sible to  mention  individually  the  hundreds  of  mana- 


179 


Sevexty-five        Years  of 

gers  and  heads  of  departments  whose  work,  in  their 
respective  fields,  has  contributed  so  much  to  the  suc- 
cess of  the  organization.  In  a  way  this  entire  history 
is  a  tribute  to  them,  since — but  for  their  efficiency  in 
their  respective  tasks,  their  loyalty  and  devotion  to 
the  organization  as  a  whole — this  record  of  75  years  of 
continuous  progress  would  never  have  been  written. 

Almost  from  its  very  inception,  the  words  "For 
the  Promotion  and  Protection  of  Trade"  have  been 
the  motto  of  The  Mercantile  Agency.  For  seventy- 
five  years  every  effort  of  the  institution  has  been  direct- 
ed to  fulfilling  the  mission  expressed  by  that  motto.  As 
it  has  grown  greater,  as  its  operations  have  been  ex- 
tended into  broader  fields,  as  its  activities  have  become 
more  complex,  it  has  been  enabled  to  fulfill  that  mis- 
sion to  a  higher  degree.  To-day  its  methods  repre- 
sent the  accumulated  exj^erience,  and  its  vast  collec- 
tions of  reports  the  accumulated  information  of  three- 
quarters  of  a  century.  As  its  annals  show,  the  process 
of  improvement  has  been  continuous  during  all  these 
years,  yet  the  cost  of  the  Agency's  service  to  its  sub- 
scribers is  actually  less  than  it  was  in  1841. 

In  an  Agency  circular  published  thirty-five  years 
ago  appears  the  following  passage: 

The  advance  made  in  business  facilities  is  greater 
than  the  improvement  attained  in  any  other  department 
of  human  activity.  The  telegraph,  the  telephone,  rail- 
roads ;  cheap,  frequent  and  rapid  posts ;  banking,  insur- 
ance, expressage,  exchanges  and  associations  with  limit- 
ed liability — are  all  agencies  so  common  in  every  day's 
experience  that  one  hardly  realizes  how  recent  is  the  in- 


180 


The      Mercantile  Agency 

troduction  of  most  of  them  into  ordinary  use.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  the  perfection  in  the  growth  of  all 
business  facilities,  uncertainties  attend  every  business 
man's  career,  and  none  are  more  disastrous  than  the 
losses  incurred  by  the  injudicious  granting  of  credits. 
The  first  organized  effort  ever  made  to  lessen  the 
chances  of  loss  in  this  direction  is  The  Mercantile 
Agency. 

While  its  object  has  remained  unchanged,  the 
facihties  for  attaining  that  object  have  enlarged  far 
beyond  the  dreams  of  its  founders.  As  the  foregoing 
pages  show,  the  growth  of  the  institution  has  kept 
pace  with  the  growth  of  the  nation,  and  in  the  last 
twenty-five  years  its  expansion  has  been  world-wide 
in  response  to  the  vast  increase  in  international  com- 
merce and  the  rapid  development  of  far-off  regions 
like  Australia  and  South  Africa. 

Modern  commerce  is  based  upon  credit  to  an  ex- 
tent scarcely  realized  by  those  who  have  not  given 
the  subject  special  attention.  Credit  is  founded  upon 
confidence,  and  confidence,  in  turn,  is  derived  from 
accurate  and  impartial  information.  The  commercial 
world  now  realizes  more  than  ever  before  the  extent 
of  its  reliance  upon  such  a  service  as  The  JVIercantile 
Agency  was  expressly  designed  to  supply,  and  to  the 
improvement  of  which  it  has  devoted  seventy-five 
years  of  continuous  effort  and  accumulated  experi- 
ence. It  is  hoped  that  this  outline  of  the  annals  of 
the  Agency  will  enable  those  who  are  associated  with 
it  to  realize  more  fully  the  greatness  of  the  institution 
of  which  they  form  a  part,  and  increase  their  pride 
in  it  and  in  their  work.  It  is  also  hoped  that  the  book 
181 


Se  VEX  TY  -  FIVE  YeARS  OF 


may  assist  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  granting  of 
credits  to  a  better  understanding  of  the  history  of 
The  ^Mercantile  xVgency,  and  that  students  of  eco- 
nomic and  of  business  methods  will  find  it  valuable  as 
the  record  of  an  institution  that  was  the  first  of  its 
kind,  and  that  has  been,  throughout  its  long  history, 
a  pioneer  in  bringing  about  sound  credit  conditions 
for  the  promotion  and  protection  of  trade  throughout 
the  world. 


182 


i  p 


iilllll 


